


Cruel Summer

by speedyvibraniumdevil



Series: Steve Harrington [3]
Category: Stranger Things - Fandom, steve Harrington - Fandom
Genre: ?? - Freeform, Basically all the stranger things kids come out in this, Cussing, F/M, Implied Smut, Mentions of Blood, Sequel to The Boy of Your Dreams, between overage characters you dingus, fluffy relationship shit, guns and violence that falls under the stranger things action, major canon change, obviously, st3 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:00:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 50,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23723473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speedyvibraniumdevil/pseuds/speedyvibraniumdevil
Summary: This sequel to The Boy of Your Dreams centered around season 3. It’s been 7 months since the happenings that brought you, Steve, and your little Hawkins family together, and things seem to be heading in the direction of normal, with demogorgons and life threatening situations in your rearview mirror. With your past, and strange powers, it all seems like a dream. But what happens when it’s summer, and amidst an existential crisis, your visions come back in full force, and with a future that seems even worse than the last?
Relationships: Steve Harrington/Reader
Series: Steve Harrington [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1484234
Kudos: 34





	1. "Normal"

_“You’re not so bad.” **  
**_

_“That’s why I think he needs the color.”_

_“She’s like Phoebe Cates, but hotter.”_

_“Suzy, do you copy?”_

_“The week is long…”_

_“My battery is low, but…”_

_“The silver cats feeds when…”_

_“Nerd!”_

_“Blue meets yellow in the west.”_

_“Billy?”_

_“You used to be happy….”_

_“6.626….”_

_“Better than any of us.”_

There were no images tied to the random series of words and phrases swarming into your brain as you slept. It was just questions, or part of conversations with no context, uttered by numerous different voices, and they slowly started to overlap with each other until it started to sound like a swarm of bees. They were indiscernible at this point.

“Nine!” you heard Steve yell amongst the fray, and it brought your awareness back to yourself.

With all of your might, you tore your eyes open, willing yourself awake, and were surprisingly met with a quiet, nearly dark room. Having heard him call out to you, you had half-expected Steve to be up, fussing over you because you had shown some signs of distress while asleep (something that had happened times before), but to your dismay, the boy was still asleep face down next to you. 

Wherever his voice came from, it wasn’t the present.

You sat up, not intending to go back to sleep, and got a good look at him. He was hugging his pillow against himself, with his face squished against it. If you looked close enough, you could see that he was drooling a little, a heartwarming sight that grounded you back to reality. 

He was fine, you were fine, you were both safe.

Maybe the way he called out to you in that dream was just a flashback to a time of demodogs and a Mindflayer. It didn’t always have to mean that it was some kind of premonition, right? But still, when you’d replay the sound in your mind, it made you feel uneasy. Hearing his voice in that tone was nothing but bad.

You ran your eyes over his bare back, and over the muscles there to distract, and steel yourself. They were familiar now, _he_ was familiar. 

The thing was, it was hard to pinpoint your visions from your dreams nowadays. Unless you were touching someone’s skin, or the visions were crystal clear, you could never be too sure. Before the gate was closed, your dreams were almost all premonitions of some kind, but now you had more regular dreams than ever before. 

Gone were the days of painful headaches, nosebleeds, and panging visions from out of the blue. And the more you wore your gloves and the less you put your powers into practice, the less exercise that part of your brain seemed to do.

You weren’t really complaining, since for the longest time your clairvoyance was a hindrance despite how much it helped you in times of need. After all, you had craved a normal life for so long, you didn’t mind not using it. It wasn’t like El’s power where they had a fun and practical use, you couldn’t do whatever you wanted with your abilities, it was different. 

Now, there were no more life threatening situations to predict or look into, so unless something life altering was going to happen, you weren’t going to know about it. You had normal, but now normal was starting to get stagnant, and if you were being honest, you were starting to miss those times.

You sighed.

_I can’t think about this._

Not wanting to be alone in being awake any longer, you laid back down so you were facing Steve. With a smile, you regarded his sleeping face. Part of you wanted to leave him be, since he was probably very tired from his shift at Scoops last night, but you had to head home soon and you knew he’d want you to wake him up before you did.

_To try and keep me from leaving, as per usual._

You poked the tip of his nose with your index finger, then his very pink, and pouty lower lip. All he did was twitch, so you ran your finger down the center of his face. He groaned in response, and you had to stifle a laugh.

“Steve,” you whispered. “Steeeve.”

He groaned again, but this time you got a one worded, irritated response, “What?”

Still, he didn’t open his eyes. 

“Wake up.”

He turned his head away from you and muttered a child like, “No.”

You snorted and rolled your eyes.

“But I have to leave soon. You don’t want to say goodbye?”

“Noooooo.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Mhmmmmm.”

“Fine,” you said, and started to sit up again so you could get out of bed this time. “Guess I’ll see you later…”

“No, no, no, no you don’t.”

Steve shot up from his pillow and pulled you back onto the bed by your waist. You gasped, and giggled when he buried his face in your neck.

“There he is,” you mused.

“You did that on purpose,” he mumbled into your skin, and it tickled.

“I had to get you up somehow. It was surprisingly easy.”

He lifted his head so that he was hovering over you, and you smirked up at him. His hair was a mess, his eyes were still puffy from sleep, and there were pillow marks on the side of his face. 

Yup, you were in love with him.

“Can you blame a guy for wanting to spend more time with his girl?”

“No,” you smirked.

He kissed you sweetly and lazily, and it made you want to stay here in his arms and go back to bed, but you couldn’t.

“I really do have to go, though,” you said when he pulled away. 

“Do you?” He kissed you again, and then your jaw, and then your collarbone. In between he kept talking. “Can’t you just stay a little longer? Hopper’s gotta loosen up at some point right?”

The way his lips felt on your skin was so good, and made you want to moan, but you bit your lip to repress it.

“As if you didn’t know him,” you said, pushing him away gently. “He’s probably already pissed that I stayed the night without telling him. I better go before he drives over here and threatens to kill you.”

Steve whined and gripped your tighter.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he mumbled, but didn’t protest any further.

He knew better than to poke the bear any more than he should. When you and Steve started dating, Hopper thought he had reached his peak level of stress, but now that Mike and El had gotten a little older and started spending a little too much time together, he was at a whole new level of irritable. 14 year olds were a different breed than 18 year olds, but on top of that, Mike Wheeler was the snarkiest little shit you had ever met, which made Hopper’s job worse. And the idea of his eldest daughter spending the night with her boyfriend certainly didn’t make things any better. No matter how much you told him you were old enough and could take care of yourself.

Steve finally let you go so you could get up from bed and pick your pants up from the floor. Steve watched you get dressed with a smirk. You glanced at him, and he pointed to the red and blue striped shirt you had been wearing to sleep.

“I’m gonna need that.”

“Can I borrow it? I promise I’ll give it back,” you lied through your teeth with an innocent smile. If you were honest, the shirt was comfortable, and you liked having something of his to wear.

“You mean like you’ve ‘given back’ every other t-shirt you’ve ‘borrowed’?” He used air quotes to emphasize what he meant. “By the time we hit a year, I’ll have nothing to wear.”

You rolled your eyes, and swiftly pulled the shirt over your head so you were just in a bra and jeans. The scars from months ago were visible beneath the straps. 

They were thin and less intense than the first few weeks when they were initially healing, as were the ones on your thighs. Although, they still obviously looked like the mark of claws, bigger than a small dog’s or cat’s, so it wasn’t anything that could be explained normally, or without unusual stares (“I got mauled by a large animal,” never sounds pretty). So, you tried your best to cover them up. 

At this point, only Steve ever got to see them, which was more than fine by you. He knew where they came from, and he only ever saw them as badass and beautiful. 

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” you wiggled your eyebrows at him, and threw the balled up shirt in his direction. 

He laughed as he caught it, and continued to watch as you looked for your own shirt, that was by his desk. You put your arms into the sleeves of the periwinkle blue blouse, buttoned it up, and tucked it into your jeans. 

You looked back up at him, to catch him staring at you, stretched out and smirking like a cat, in that way he always did. Half of the time you wanted to berate him for just laying there while you busied yourself with getting ready, and the other half you quite enjoyed having his eyes on you. It was a feeling you never thought you’d get used to, but you slowly did.

Looking at him, as you slipped on your small gloves, you were reminded of the strange dream that you had. The numerous phrases that replayed but didn’t make sense to you, and then the sound of Steve calling out your name. You wondered if you should tell him about it or not. It didn’t seem like a vision, but you also couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t. You just weren’t sure…

“Nina?” His voice snapped you back to reality.

“Hmmm? What?” you blurted out, before noticing the concerned frown on his face.

“You zoned out a little there. Or…did you?”

You knew what he was insinuating. He probably thought you just had another vision.

“No, I was just thinking….”

“About what?”

You could tell him, maybe you should, but you also didn’t want him to worry about something that was probably nothing. He was already so busy with work and worrying about his own future. After all, the gate was long closed, so it wasn’t like there was anything that could possibly happen right? There was no way.

You sat down on the edge of the bed and said, “Maybe I’m crazy, but I kinda miss those days when we kicked major ass.”

He scoffed, “ Ha! You’re right, you are crazy.”

“Come on, you’re gonna sit there and tell me that you don’t miss those crazy adventures? Killing demogorgons and shit?”

“You mean almost dying, multiple times?”

“Saving the world?”

By the look on his face, you could see he was wondering if you were being serious. Still, he took a while to answer.

“No, Nina, I don’t.”

“I just…” you started, and played with the fabric of your gloves, “I don’t know what to do with my life now. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with you. It’s not you. It’s the future…I mean, I don’t just want to work at the Gap forever.”

He snorted, “You think I want to work at Scoops Ahoy forever? If it were up to me, I’d be living in Chicago or something, going to school there maybe. But it’s not up to me.” 

You and Steve both currently worked at the Starcourt Mall, except Steve worked at an ice cream shop called Scoops Ahoy, while you worked at the Gap that was right next door. Steve got the job after his dad found out he didn’t get into a good school, so as a form of punishment, he forced Steve to get a regular job. In solidarity, and as a way to get your own financial independence, you decided to get a job too. The money was a big plus, but the job itself was, well, stagnant. It wasn’t a job that was supposed to be forever, but sometimes it felt that way to you.

You shrugged, “One day it could be. If you save up enough.”

“Oh hell yeah, I’d love that.” he brushed some hair behind your ear. “And maybe…you can be there too.”

You smiled, feeling warmth build up in your cheeks. It was still too early in your relationship to do something like that, move into another city, but it was a possibility that was starting to appeal to you more and more, for the distant future.

“One day,” you nodded.”

You eyed him and then the door to his bedroom, which filled you with dread. Not because you didn’t want to leave, you never wanted to leave, but really, it was what could potentially lie on the other side.

And you had fought demogorgons before.

“Are they home?” you grumbled.

He groaned and rubbed his face dejectedly.

“Shit. For a second I almost forgot.”

Even though it was Hopper who gave you shit about spending too much time with Steve, it wasn’t him who you constantly sneak around behind. No, Hopper was surprisingly more understanding with you and Steve, than the Harringtons themselves. 

The reason behind the sneaking behind his parents back was not because of embarrassment, or because they didn’t know you were dating. On the contrary, you had met them a few times before. The only problem was that you didn’t really like each other.

They were the most hypocritical, passive aggressive people you have ever met in your life. Steve warned you that they were assholes before meeting them, his dad in particular, and even Hopper told you they were “like that” since they went to high school together. Sure, they never insulted you to your face (although his dad did basically call you a charity case that first dinner over the holidays), but it was clear that neither of them thought you were a good fit for their son. A precious son that they never spent time with or bothered to get to know since they were always gone, or treated like a real son at all.

It was a wonder how Steve came out of that pair.

You did your best to keep your mouth shut, but, needless to say, you never saw eye to eye. Now with the whole thing about forcing Steve to get a job at starcourt to “teach him a lesson”, for not getting into a good school, it didn’t help that they had always seen you as a distraction, and probably blamed you for his lack of good grades. So, Steve thought it best for you to steer clear of them as much as possible for the time being. Which you didn’t mind one bit considering how much you dreaded conversations with either of them.

It was just easier when they weren’t home, which was a gamble at this point, considering they came and went as they pleased.

“Do you think they came home this morning?” you asked him.

Steve threw the covers off of himself and finally got out of bed, no doubt to go check it out for himself.

“Guess we’ll have to see.”

Steve put on his pajama bottoms and a hoodie while you quickly threw on and laced up your converse. With a hand on the doorknob, he raised a finger to his lips to shush you and said,

“Stay here, I’ll be right back,” and disappeared into the hallway in a flash, leaving you alone in his room.

You sat on the bed, with your purse in hand, waiting in anticipation. You perked up you head, angling it so you could hear better in case there were any voices, an indication that they were home. But there was nothing but silence until you heard the rustling of Steve’s footsteps and then the turn of the knob when he finally returned.

When you saw the adorable grin on his lips, you already knew before he said it.

“Coast is clear, baby,” he motioned with his head for you to follow him out.

You breathed out a sigh of relief. No battles need be fought today.

***

The second you pulled up to the cabin in your blue Volkswagen beetle, you saw Hopper step out onto the porch with a frown and his arms crossed. A familiar sight at this point, especially in these circumstances. You really hoped he had had a cup of coffee already or else this was going to be a bust.

You stepped out of the car and slung your bag over your shoulder as you looked up at him and slammed the car door shut.

“You’re late,” he uttered disapprovingly.

“Oh, really? Some people would say I’m early,” you snided, motioning to the very obvious daylight outside.

He rolled his eyes and you couldn’t help but smirk as you went up the steps.

“Listen, I don’t want to be the bad guy, alright? I understand that you’re a legal adult now, but you’re still my daughter and I’m allowed to worry.”

You stopped at his side and put a hand on his arm, “I know.”

You gave him a kiss on the cheek and you visibly saw him soften. It was only enough for you to see, but that tough exterior was always hard to crack when he was angry anyway.

“Why do you think I got here before you left for work?” you added while continuing on into the house, with Hopper at your heels.

“Which I appreciate, thank you. But need I remind you-”

“That I’m too young to get pregnant and/or move in with a guy like Steve?” you finished the sentence that he constantly repeated to you ever since he figured out you and Steve were more serious than he thought.

He flared his nostrils, “Yes.”

“Don’t you think I know that? Neither of us are anyyyywhere near that part in our lives, so maybe just…calm down a little okay? There’s nothing wrong with me wanting to spend some nights with my boyfriend. Especially since my room has now become the Mike and El room.” you motioned to the door that led to the room you shared with your little sister.

It was true. As much as you were happy for El on her budding relationship with Mike, you had to admit that you were also suffering the consequences of just how close they were getting. You already had little time alone with her due to your new job and with your relationship with Steve, but even when you were home, she usually had Mike over. And the two little shits liked to make out when nobody was looking. 

You could relate. But ew.

Hopper sighed deeply, displaying the same feelings you had on the inside. No, he looked even more murderous.

“Oh, I know,” he muttered. “I swear to God I have to do something about them or I’m gonna lose it. I have to break them up, something.”

You pointed a stern finger at him, “Hopper, no.”

“We’ll if it gets to that point, I just might” He whispered sharply so El couldn’t hear.

“Just talk to them, separately. Like you did with me and Steve.”

“Yeah, well Mike Wheeler is a different breed than Steve Harrington, trust me.”

You point to the door with your thumb, “He’s not in there right now, is he?”

“No, thank God. Otherwise the door would be open at least three inches.”

You snorted, “Right. Your little rule.”

“A little rule that they still can’t fucking follow.”

“Teenagers,” you shrugged and giggled when he rolled his eyes.

Hopper changed the subject. “How were the Harringtons?”

“Not home, thank God,” you dropped down onto the couch with a sigh.

“I swear, the next time John Harrington says some shit about you not being good enough for his kid, I’m gonna punch the bastard.”

“Easy there, chief. It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal? Those two idiots should feel damn lucky that you want anything to do with their family.”

“I mean, can you blame them? I’m not exactly an all star or valedictorian. I may have helped save the world, but on paper I’m barely anybody.”

“Fuck what’s on paper, Nine. You can’t help the life that you lived. As far as you know, you’re barely getting started and that’s fine. That doesn’t make you less than anybody. If anything, you’re worth more than all the Harringtons combined.”

“Hey,” you chided defensively, “Don’t rope Steve with them. You know he’s good.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, “he plopped down on the other side of the couch with you. “What kind of a dad would I be if I didn’t give my daughter’s boyfriend some kind of shit?”

You shook your head at him, but then found yourself getting lost in thought, trailing back to the conversation you had with Steve back in his room. About how you may have brought up the subject to evade another, but you weren’t lying.

You never really saw personal value to your place in the world. When you were experimented on, your value was placed on by the people who tortured you and demanded excellence from you based on your powers. They saw you merely as a weapon, something to be used.

When you escaped, it was all about survival. There were no thoughts of possibly saving the world from monsters, there was just getting your basic needs met and making it to the next day. Life was nothing special, and you were only special because you had powers that nobody knew about. 

It wasn’t until you found Hopper and El, met Steve, Dustin, and the rest of the kids at Hawkins, that you started to feel a sense of belonging, a sense of value. And it was after the gate was closed that you realized that there could be life after experimentation and aliens. You were living it one day at a time, but there were still so many things left to explore and tap into. There were things you wanted to do with your life, and like every young adult your age, you were in a place of figuring it out.

You tried not to let the Harrington’s words get to you, but you had to admit that they sparked this spiral of questioning your entire future, of who you could be beyond your clairvoyance. You just never let Steve know, because you didn’t want to worry him, or blame his parents for making you feel inadequate. But it’s true.

After all, something like college held so much weight in Steve’s future, and so many other kids’ future, a thing you never considered possible. Nancy and Jonathan’s future lied with journalism and the newspaper. Hopper’s life led him to become chief of police.

What about you?

What about your life?

What about your future?

It was things like this that really did make you wish that you could go back to crazier times, even if it was to remind you why you shouldn’t be thinking those things. You just wish you knew what to do next, and your faulty visions didn’t help.

Damn this fucking summer.

***

You sat down on the bed that was yours, opposite El’s, who was sitting cross legged with a book in hand. She smiled at you brightly when you came in.

“Hey!” 

“Hey!”

“Did you have fun with Steve?” she asked.

You hummed, “Yeah, I did. What about you? Things good with Mike?”

She giggled coyly, “Yeah.”

You shook your head, “The two of you are going to give dad high blood pressure, if he doesn’t already have it. Take it easy on him, will you?”

She frowned, “Not you too.”

You raised your hands up defensively.

“Hey, I’m not taking his side, I’m just saying that I understand why he’s protective. You can still sneak around, but by pretending to play by the rules. Not playing with fire when he’s right there.”

“I mean I guess,” she sighed.

“Plus, there’s got to be more to your life than just Mike, El. Aren’t you and Max still friends?”

She nodded.

“Have you guys ever hung out, just the two of you?”

She shook her head. 

“You should try it one day. Have a girls day out.”

She seemed to consider the option, which was enough for you, even if she didn’t do it any time soon.

You got up and started going through your closet and drawers to pick out clothes for the day. You could feel El’s gaze still watching you.

“What about you?” she asked suddenly. “Do you have a friend like Max?”

You stopped mid motion, going through the mental list of girl friends that you had. Nancy was always too busy nowadays, with her job at the paper and her relationship with Jonathan (what was it about men??), so you rarely saw her, but when you did it was okay at best. She was sweet, but not a best friend. Joyce was more of a mother figure than anything. Max, although you loved her, was too young, and El was your sister, so she was automatically your best friend, but once again, too young.

_Wow, I have no girl friends. I suck._

You shrugged and tried not to show El your dejected facial expression.

“I have you.”

“That doesn’t count, Nine.”

You looked over your shoulder at her and said, “Does too!”

She flared her nostrils and shook her head. “I don’t think it does.”

You sighed, “We need girlfriends our age, El.”

“Yup.”

You didn’t know where you’d find one. Your coworkers certainly weren’t promising, and it wasn’t like you were great at interacting in general. You were just happy you had friends at all.

***

Work was as it always was when working retail. People were always coming in and out, asking obvious questions, unfolding clothes you had just folded, and leaving the fitting rooms a mess. Luckily it was never full, since people mostly liked to hang out at the mall, and eat, as a way to shield them from the summer heat.

You wore your name tag on the left side of your checkered shirt, displaying your real name, Y/N. Since it was your legal name, you were required to fill out the job application with it, and even when they asked you what name you wanted to go by, you decided to use Y/N, because “Nine” was too weird and both that and “Nina” were too personal. So, it was Y/N, every now and then.

You decided soon after you got the job that only close friends and family could call you either of those other names anyway. 

When Steve came into work, he made it part of his routine to stop by and say hi before he started his shift. This usually meant him sneaking up on you when you weren’t looking, and sometimes it was in the fitting room (where he swore no one would care if you guys disappeared into for a while, but you scolded him on). Being the guy that he was, he often got distracted, and the fact that he hated his job as it was, didn’t make it easier. So, yeah, he was late the first few times. It didn’t fare well with his coworker, Robin (who you still weren’t sure if she liked you or not), but you’ve managed to teach him to be more responsible as time went on. 

Besides, you always saw each other on breaks and lunches, regardless if they aligned or not. It got some getting used to considering his work uniform was a sailor outfit that was beyond ridiculous, but you found yourself not even thinking about it now.

The door to the supply closet slammed shut as the two of you clamored into the small room, limbs tangling with each other, lips on skin. You both gasped when you crashed into the broom, mop, and bucket, and you laughed as Steve moved to fix them, only for you to tug him by his collar back to you. 

“Remember I only have 5 minutes, Harrington.”

He winked at you, “Easy.”

“Cocky,” you rolled your eyes only to take his bruising kiss, the sensation always like an addictive fire in your veins. It made these wary times for you much better.

You were pushed up against a metal shelf, but your attention was completely taken away from the discomfort with the feeling of Steve’s lips making their way to your neck, and his hands moving to the buttons on your jeans.

You were completely lost to this heaven, ready for what was coming next, until you felt a twinge at your temples. It was subtle, but you had had enough headache inducing visions to notice every single one of them. Except instead of seeing visions, you heard voices, voices you had heard in your dream earlier that day. And your eyes, which had been closed, were now wide open.

_“He’s corrupting her, I’m telling you.”_

_“That’s why I think he needs the color.”_

_“You’re crazy!”_

_“She’s like Phoebe Cates, but hotter.”_

_“Suzy, do you copy?”_

_“The week is long…”_

_“My battery is low, but…”_

_“The silver cats feeds when…”_

_“Billy?”_

_“Blue meets yellow in the west.”_

_“You used to be happy….”_

_“6.626….”_

_“Better than any of us.”_

_“Nine!”_

You gasped, and Steve pulled away worriedly. His hand cupped your cheek.

“Hey, Nina, are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

Your eyes were wide, your heart racing now from what you had experienced, less about what was happening.

“No, no it wasn’t you.”

“Did you….did you see something?” he asked as the realization dawned on him.

You shook your head slowly, “No….I don’t know….I didn’t have a vision, but….it was something. Something weird.”

“Weird?”

“…Voices…..but…”  
“Voices? What did they say?”

“I-” You stuttered, closed your eyes, trying to remember, but then the beeping of your watch snapped you back to reality.

Your break was up.

“Damn it,” you hissed.

“Fuck,” Steve muttered.

You buttoned up your pants and fixed your hair.

“We’ll talk about this later, okay?” he said. 

You nodded, “Okay.”

“Come over before you go, yeah? We can talk about it then and figure out if it’s serious or not.”

You sighed, “Okay.”

You really hoped it wasn’t serious.

Another part of your work routine was seeing the kids at some point in time. This time, it was late at night, towards the end of your shift.

“Hey, Nina!” You heard the familiar group of voices call out your name from just outside of the store.

When you looked up from the stack of clothes you were folding, you managed to catch Mike, Will, Lucas, and Max waving at you as they rushed by quickly, in the direction of Scoops Ahoy. No doubt to bother Steve so he can sneak them into the theatre again.

You shook your head in disapproval, then remembered all the other things you got into in that same hallway. It was a miracle that Steve hadn’t gotten in trouble, or worse, fired, at this point.

Suddenly, you perked up in realization and looked at the watch that had hidden beneath your glove.

7:57. Your shift was almost over.

You promised Steve you’d see him before leaving, which you always did anyways. 

As if that first dream didn’t already instill anxiety in you, this last vision (could you even call it that), made this worse. Ever since you had it, you could hardly think about anything else. A lot of those voices were voices you knew, and the phrases were repeated. What did they mean? What was going to happen?

You had a bad feeling, one that had nothing to do with your powers.

But the gate is closed, Nine. It’s fine. It’ll be fine.

Having clocked out and gotten your things out of your locker, you also headed next door in search of Steve before you headed home for the night. And just like you did half of the time, you found Robin tending to the front this time. She flashed her eyes at you and you gave her a friendly smile as you walked up to the counter.

“Hello again, Y/N.”

“Hey there, Robin.”

She skeptically eyed the gloves on your hands.

“Isn’t it a bit hot for gloves this time of year?”

You flexed your hands, feeling the presence of the fabric for the first time all day since you had gotten so used to it by now.

You shrugged, “It’s a germaphobe thing.”

She hummed, “If that’s true and you chose to work at a mall, it’s a wonder you’re not constantly on the verge of a panic attack.”

“I survive.”

It was always a little awkward between you and Robin. It wasn’t that you hated each other, or, at least, you didn’t think she hated you. If you were honest, it was mostly on your part. 

You had grown so close to Steve and to your little family in Hawkins, that the sudden appearance of someone new put you a little on edge. You already had trust issues as it was, and Robin was definitely the type to ask too many questions, which you didn’t like. The fact that she spent more time with Steve in a day this time of year, than you, didn’t make it any easier. If you were honest, you were a tiny bit jealous. You knew Steve would never cheat on you, but the trust issues were less for him and more for her. 

She looked over her shoulder and shouted, “Dingus, you’ve got another visitor!” 

You could hear Steve’s muffled voice from the other side of the screen that separated the back room from the front of the store.

“Another one? What do you mean another-?”

He slid open the screen, and upon seeing you, his annoyed expression turned to one of pure joy. His smile was contagious and immediately made you forget any awkwardness or tiredness from the hours on your feet.

“Baby!”

He burst through the door and came around the counter to take you in a warm embrace. You swore you could fall asleep right then and there. He pulled back and took your face in his hands to kiss you. You could hear noises of protest from Robin.

“Do you want to talk?” he asked.

“Actually, I’m heading out.”

“You don’t want to stay a little longer? We can go talk somewhere if you want.”

You narrowed your eyes, “We both know you have no words to say, Harrington.”

“No, I mean, about….you know.” He looked over at Robin and then whispered, “About what you heard?”

Your chest felt like it was one big knot of anxiety that kept constricting on itself. You did want to talk about it, but considering the subject matter, the presence of Robin and all of these people in Starcourt made you feel like there were eyes on you. You looked over at her too and pulled Steve into the corner so she wouldn’t hear.

“Not here, and not right now.”

“We can go in the supply closet again if you want.”

“No, no, it’s too cramped in there anyway and I don’t want you getting in trouble because of me. How about tomorrow? At your place?”

He looked wary, which you understood. He had seen you pass out from visions before, and although you reminded him that you weren’t made of glass and that you hadn’t passed out in months, it was still a worry in the back of his mind. You thought he was going to protest, but with another look at Robin and everyone around, he said,

“Fine. My place before you go to work. Okay?”

You flared your nostrils, “Whatever you say, mother goose.”

“Ha, funny,” he said without a sliver of amusement.

And Hopper wondered what you saw in him, when the two were often so damn similar.

***

People continued to crowd the parking lot late at night, and you joined them in the cool air on your walk to your car. When you found it and were safely inside, you took a deep calming breath.

_It’s okay, it’s gonna be okay._

Now that you were away from so many people, you could take off your gloves, and you did, throwing them into the passenger seat. In the process you caught a glimpse of your “009” tattoo, something you never really thought twice about at this point. Although you did debate on getting it covered up one day, you just weren’t sure with what.

You were sure that conversation would go splendidly with Hopper. Not that it mattered anyway.

You turned on the car and immediately the radio started to play, but it was the radio and the only thing playing were commercials. So, you went into the glove compartment and searched for a cassette tape to play. When you eyed a familiar one, you perked up and grabbed it.

On the front of the case it said, 

From Steve to Nine, a cheesy romantic playlist for my favorite girl of all time. Happy Birthday!

The words always made your heart swell and your lips go into a giddy smile. He had given it to you back in April when you turned 18. Back then he said it was different from the first one he gave you, more special. You had only been together for about six months back then, but you both knew how much you loved each other. When you listened to it the first time, you cried, which wasn’t something that you did often.

Needless to say, it was your favorite tape to play.

You popped it in, and the first song, “Crazy For You” by Madonna started playing. Your favorite song. With that, you pulled out of the parking lot and headed home.

Soon enough Madonna’s voice changed to Freddie Mercury’s, and you got lost in the music, let yourself forget your stress about the strange vision you had, even if it was for a while.

However, the universe had other plans.

As you passed the familiar pastures and trees of Hawkins, Indiana, a head splitting headache hit you, making you groan in pain, and causing you to swerve in the middle of the road. The tires screeched and you tried regaining control, but your vision blurred, and before you knew it, premonitions appeared before your very eyes.

_Dustin on top of a hill, by himself with some equipment, listening to a message you couldn’t understand on a radio. Billy Hargrove, in his blue car, swerving off the road towards a building at night. A voice in the background speaking in Russian, followed by fragments of a sentence in english. Steve, tied up in a chair with his face beat up. Robin, laughing. Nancy, running away from a deformed monster. El, screaming, her hand raised, bleeding from her nose. Billy Hargrove, with his veins protruding from his skin. Joyce screaming. And finally, the Mind Flayer, but something was different. “Blue meets yellow in the west.” “6.626….”_


	2. "The Week is Long"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you deal with the aftermath of getting a major vision, Dustin comes back home, and you get some unexpected visitors while at work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part is a lot of build up with great interactions that you won’t regret reading, I promise! Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts!!

The visions blurred together and the voices started to resemble a swarm of bees, until the only thing you could hear was screaming. Screaming, screaming, screaming, until you started coming back to reality, and realized that the screaming was coming from you.

You stopped as you came to, and lowered your gloved hands that had been holding the sides of your pounding skull. They were shaking, as was your breath, and your heart was pounding so hard, you could feel it against your ribcage. Your eyes were rimmed red with tears.

Looking around, you took a hold of your surroundings with wide eyes and your heart completely dropped. During your episode, you managed to swerve the car off the road, and right into a lamppost, completely ruining the front of your car.

“Shit,“ you hissed hoarsely.

Apart from the pain in your skull, you also felt a sting above your eyebrow, and warmth over the top of your lip.With dread, you wiped at it with the back of your glove. It came away with dark red blood.

_Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. It’s happening again. If this wasn’t proof enough…._

_But how?_

You flipped through all the images in your brain, and were filled with a wave of nausea. Whatever happened that caused this, it wasn’t good.

A flash of red and blue lights, followed by the double woop of a police siren, made you jump. You looked into the rearview mirror as the car pulled up behind you, and one of Hopper’s officers got out. From what you could tell, it was Powell, one of Hop’s most trusted men.

You rolled down the window, and when he came to it and saw you, his eyes widened immediately.

“Nina?”

“Hey, Calvin.”

***

Red lights flashed above you as you sat in the back of the open ambulance. You were wrapped in a blanket, and the paramedic had just finished patching up a small gash that you had apparently gotten when your head hit the steering wheel. You felt and looked disheveled, tired, and if you were honest, shaken. This was one of the last things you had expected to happen today, or at any time in the foreseeable future, considering you were more than certain that shit like this was over. But based on history, it had a habit of repeating itself, didn’t it?

When Powell saw the blood on your face and the state you were in, he didn’t hesitate to call an ambulance. Even though your stupid instinct was to just have him drive you to the station, but luckily you were too drained to fight him on it. And no doubt Hopper would insist on making sure you get checked out anyway, considering you did get more than just a nosebleed.

You were waiting for him now. Powell called immediately after he called the paramedics, and you didn’t need to hear his voice to know he was probably in a panic. 

The police officer asked you a few questions, which you answered despite the fact that you could barely get the words out with how hoarse your voice was from screaming and how much you wanted to throw up. You lied and said something about how an animal got in your way and you swerved a little too aggressively. He was very understanding, no doubt because you were the chief’s daughter, and questioned you no further, which you were thankful for.

You almost called Steve when you were offered the phone, but he was still at work and you didn’t want him to abandon ship for you when Hopper would be here soon anyway. Even if you did tell him to stay, you knew he wouldn’t, so you’d tell him as soon as you could.

Before you knew it, you saw headlights up ahead, and just as you suspected, it was Hopper’s truck. You squinted as the headlights got closer. As soon as it came to a full stop, the driver’s side door flung open, and out came your dad, his eyes trained on you. You felt a weight lift off of your chest, and had to hold back tears at the sight of him. 

Powell stopped him for a minute, no doubt to fill him in on everything he knew, or thought he knew. Hopper nodded, but you could tell all he wanted to do was get to you. He thanked his officer and friend, before finally setting back on his course.

You slid off the edge of the ambulance to close the distance between you, and let him take you in his warm embrace.

“Nine,” he sighed in relief, and kissed the top of your head. He held you tightly, and stroked the back of your head endearingly, only to put his hands on your shoulders and tilt you back to look at you. He scanned every inch of your face, no doubt noticing traces of blood and tears. His eyes lingered especially on the tape on your forehead. 

In his soft dad voice he asked, “What the hell happened? Are you okay?”

You shrugged, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little banged up.”

“Calvin said an animal got in your way?”

You looked around, making sure nobody was listening, and then shook your head.

“That’s what I told him, but….that’s not what happened.”

He frowned and shifted his weight, preparing himself for what the truth might be. His voice got lower, and more stern.

“What happened?” he asked again.

With a deep breath you said, “I had a vision.”

“Wait, don’t you still have those?”

“I do, but not like this. This was bad. I mean blacking out, nosebleed bad. Like before…before El closed the-” 

“The gate,” he finished for you, darkness setting into his eyes.

You nodded, and whispered, “That’s why I swerved. It hit me while I was driving, and I lost control.”

He flared his nostrils and worked his jaw seriously. But before saying anything else, he looked around, and motioned to the truck with his head.

“We need to get you home.”

***

On the way home, you told Hopper everything. It spilled out of you like word vomit, from the point where you had the dream that morning, to the vision in the closet, to the one you had on the road (while sparing details about Steve, of course). You described every vision you could remember, and repeated all the phrases that were committed to memory at this point.

When you were done, and you were parked outside of the cabin, you breathed a sigh of relief, and Hopper ran his hand over his face in agitation. 

“We closed the gate, Nine.”

“I know.”

“How is any of this even possible?”

“I don’t know!”

“What could’ve possibly happened?”

“I DON’T KNOW,” you repeated loudly. 

He sighed. “What? Somebody fucked with the upside down again?”

“I guess?”

“What kind of idiots would do that?”

“The same idiots who share the same brain cell as Dr. Brenner.”

He sighed again. For you, this was only the second instance something like this had happened here in Hawkins, but for Hopper, it was the third. You could only imagine how tired and angry he was about it all.

You, on the other hand, were still making your mind up on how you felt about it. 

“Well, we’re gonna have to figure this out somehow, aren’t we?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

He nodded to himself, and then looked at you.

“From now on….I’m gonna need you to be writing down every vision that you remember, every time that you have one…got it?”

It was a simple idea, one that you almost wanted to smack yourself for, for not thinking about until now. But in times like these, when so many peoples’ lives could be at stake, it was important to remember each one.

You looked him dead in the eyes and nodded.

“Okay.”

***

Later that night, at around midnight, you laid in your bed, wide awake, unable to sleep. Too much was on your mind, and you found yourself turning to the old habit of cracking your knuckles unconsciously. You were restless, and didn’t know what to do. You didn’t want to wake up El and you certainly didn’t want to wake up your dad.

During nights like these, there was only one thing that could make you feel better, and it wasn’t here.

You looked over at El to check if she was awake at all, but upon seeing that she was fast asleep, you got out from under the covers and put on your shoes and gloves. You left your pajamas on, you’d still need them anyway. And maneuvered your way around the cabin as swiftly and quietly as you could, checking to see that Hopper was asleep as well. On the notepad next to the phone, you left a message for him to know where you were going, and quietly went outside.

Of course, you didn’t have your car anymore, which was annoying, and you couldn’t exactly take Hopper’s truck, so you resorted to taking out an old bike that Nancy let you have when you still didn’t know how to drive, that was resting on the side of the house. 

You took it out, through the woods, and mounted it when you were finally on the street, and set course for Steve’s house.

When you got there, and saw that his car was the only one in the driveway, you took your chances and rang the doorbell in hopes that he was the only one home. You waited a minute, and then rang it again in case he didn’t hear it. A few moments later, you heard footsteps on the other side, and then the door swung inwards.

There stood Steve in a t-shirt and pajama bottoms, his hair stuck up from sleeping.

“Nina?”

“Hey,” you said softly, and hugged yourself against the cool air.

“Hey,” he said, and stepped aside for you to come in. “Come in.”

Without hesitation, you did. He closed the door and was in the middle of asking, “Not that I’m complaining, but what are you doing he-?” When you interrupted him, by wrapping your arms around his torso, and burying your face in his chest.

He was a little taken aback by the suddenness of your action, but it didn’t stop him from wrapping his arms around you too.

“Hey,” he uttered in a soft calming voice, “Is everything okay?”

You shook your head against him, “Not really.”

“What happened?”

You leaned back to get a good look at him. You took in his unruly brown locks, his sweet brown eyes, his nose, the shape of his lips. Aside from the obvious fact that you had world saving knowledge in your brain, you also had the knowledge that you could’ve lost your life in a car accident. The last time you almost died, you were in Steve’s arms.

In that time you had almost forgotten about the scratch above your eyebrow, which Steve noticed almost immediately now that he got a good look at you. His hands went to either side of your face.

“Woah, woah, woah, what is this?” he asked. “You didn’t have that when you left the mall. What happened?”

“That’s what I was going to tell you. I got into a car accident tonight,” you admitted.

His eyes widened and he sputtered, “What? When? How?”

“On my way home from work. I had a bad vision and I lost control of the car. I crashed into a lamppost.”

“Jesus, Nina,” he took you in fully as the weight of it hit him. 

“I know. I would’ve called you, but you were at work and it all happened so fast.”

“No, no, I’m just glad you’re okay….do you want to talk about it? What did you see?”

You shook your head, “I don’t want to talk about it, not right now. I just want to be with you.”

There were a million questions in his eyes, you could see it, and you’d answer them eventually, but you were too tired in so many ways to do that now.

He nodded, “Okay….okay.”

He held you tightly against his chest, just as he did later, when you were both in his bed, and you fell asleep in his arms.

***

_A voice in the background speaking in Russian, followed by fragments of a sentence in english. A girl who was a lifeguard, at a public pool. Steve, getting punched in the face. Robin, laughing. Nancy, shooting at something. El, screaming, her hand raised, bleeding from her nose. Billy Hargrove, with his veins protruding from his skin, with his hand around your throat. A man with curly hair and glasses, his hands tied. A ferris wheel. Fireworks._

_The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west._

_The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west._

_The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow…_

_Nine!_

You felt a hand touch the side of your face.

“Nine!”

The sound of Steve’s voice, pulled you out of your nightmares for the second time in a row, except this time it was real. His face was there, right in above yours and he was wide awake, amidst trying to shake you out of your dreams. 

Your heart was racing, and sweat beaded down your temples. You touched his face to make sure he was real.

“You okay?” he asked.

Aside from the incoming “hangover” you were no doubt going to feel, you were pretty sure you were still alive and okay. 

“I’m good. Especially since you’re here.”

He smirked softly, and you had to resist the urge to just devour him.

“I’m sorry if I woke you up,” you murmured, suddenly feeling like garbage, not only for waking him up now, but for bothering him in the middle of the night. “Both times.”

He shook his head, “No, no, you don’t have to be sorry about anything. I’m just happy I get to see your face, and that you’re okay.”

He made you smile, and the kiss that followed almost made you forget what you were supposed to tell him next. Almost.

“Speaking of,” you said, and sat up so you could better prepare yourself to explain the events of last night, and even the last morning, “I need to tell you what happened.”

***

You finally told Steve everything and spared no details. He was a little annoyed that you hadn’t told him about the first dream you had in the first place, and telling him you didn’t want to worry him didn’t really serve as a good argument either. What was even worse was his reaction to being reminded about not getting called as soon as you got into an accident. When you told him you didn’t want him to get fired because of you, he said,

“Fuck, Scoops, Nina. I care about you!”

Other than those comments, he listened as best as Steve Harrington could. He did that thing that Hopper did where he nodded as he processed everything, even though he was internally freaking out. When you were finally done, he said,

“This is insane.”

“I know.”

“You know how you said you missed kicking ass?”

“…Yeah.”

“Well here’s your chance.”

“I didn’t think this was actually going to happen again!”

“I know, but it’s weird isn’t it? That it is?”

“I mean yeah.”

He took a moment and then said, “Well, I’m not gonna lie. It was starting to get a little boring around here.”

You narrowed your eyes at him, scoldingly, but it quickly turned into a smirk. He had called you crazy yesterday, but it seems he did agree with you after all. Stuff like this was terrifying and you didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but that messed up part of you was the tiniest bit excited.

“Do you have an empty notebook by any chance?” you asked, suddenly remembering what you needed.

He furrowed his brow in confusion.

“Yeah I think there might be an old one in my desk. Why?”

You hopped up from the bed and went to go check his desk. You smiled brightly when you did, in fact, find an empty notebook in the mix of items.

“Hopper said to write everything that I see down so that I don’t forget and we have all the possibilities down.”

You grabbed a pen and sat down at the edge of the bed.

“Huh. That’s not a bad idea.”

You flipped to the first empty page and started writing down every single vision and phrase that you remembered, from the very beginning. Steve sat next to you, peering over your shoulder as you scribbled everything that came to mind. When you were done, you sighed in relief and shook out your cramped hand.

You looked at Steve, who was being surprisingly silent. A curious thought occured to you, suddenly.

“Did anything weird happen after I left? Anything out of the ordinary that might be a clue?”

His lips downturned and he shook his head, “No, I don’t think….”

He trailed off, and his eyes filled with something you couldn’t place.

“What? What is it?” you asked.

He snapped his fingers. “There was a blackout. Right after you left, everything shut down. It was only for a few seconds but….”

“A blackout….”

“I didn’t think much of it at first, but now that you mention it.”

“It could be a clue.”

You opened the notebook and wrote it down in a corner so you wouldn’t forget.

***

The rest of the day was a blur. Nothing exciting happened, other than the fact, you found yourself spending the night at Steve’s again. The only way you could get some sleep was when you were with him. The visions didn’t go away, but the experience was better when he was by your side. His reassurances were the best thing for you right now, and you think it made him feel useful too.

The next day, however, was when things started to get interesting.

First off, Hopper came by The Gap early in your shift to tell you that he was going out to dinner with Joyce later and that he needed help picking out a shirt. Of all the things to happen these past few days, this was the one that got you excited beyond all reason.

You gasped, “You guys are finally going on a date?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it a date, but it is two friends going out…eating dinner…together.”

“Riiiight,” you said with an unconvinced glare. “So it’s a date.”

“Maybe a little bit, but I’m not going to discuss the semantics with you, when what I need is for you to help me look good.”

With a pleased smile, you bounced on the balls of your feet. “Absolutely.”

You both went around the store, looking through all the good looking button ups that the store had. Your manager couldn’t say anything about it since you were technically helping out a customer and Hopper was the chief of police.

As you were piling on the clothes into his arms, Hopper also mentioned how he “talked” to Mike last night. AKA, he basically threatened his life.

“Oh, dad noooooo.”

“Oh, dad yes.”

“You did not threaten that poor kid’s life just like you did with Steve!”

The two of you were in the fitting rooms now. He tried on shirts while you stood outside the door, judging each one.

“I didn’t threaten him,” you could hear the lie in his voice, “I talked to him. Set some boundaries. It’s what Joyce told me to do.”

You had a feeling that what Joyce said and what Hopper interpreted that advice to be, were two different things.

Hopper came out with an olive button down with short sleeves. You gave it a displeased look and shook your head.

“I don’t like the color,” you said, and returned to the subject matter. “What did he say?”

He leaned against the frame and shrugged. “He listened and agreed with my terms.”

You crossed your arms, “Which are?”

“That he and El would spend less time together.”

You felt your heart sink.

“He agreed to that?”

“Yeah. Today’s the first day that they won’t be spending any time together.”

Hopper looked pleased with himself and the outcome of this whole situation. Too pleased. But you knew better than to not see how this could go wrong. Especially since El probably knew nothing about it.

“Does El know?” you asked to confirm your suspicions.

“No, and she doesn’t need to.”

You narrowed your eyes, “Is that why El got that weird phone call from Mike this morning?”

He smirked, slowly closing the door to try on the next shirt. “Maybe.”

“Hopper!” you raised your voice, only to lower it when you caught unwanted attention from shoppers. “Hopper!”

“Don’t ‘Hopper’, me. Who’s the dad here? I make the parental decisions for my kids, alright? You can’t tell me that little shit wasn’t crossing the line. She needs some time that isn’t just ‘Mike and El time’.”

An annoyed sound rumbled in your throat, but you didn’t say anything. He wasn’t wrong, but you didn’t think he was entirely right either. Maybe it was because you were biased and also had a boyfriend who was threatened by your overprotective father.

All you said was, “If she finds out and gets pissed…”

When he came out of the dressing room this time, your annoyance was put aside as you were overcome with glee at the sight of him in this next button up. It was a short sleeve, patterned with abstract pink and green shapes. It was reminiscent of a Hawaiian shirt, but less over the top. It was the opposite of what Hopper always wore (which was a police uniform), but still very Hopper overall. Maybe the pattern was a little out of the ordinary, but you liked it, and based on the smile on Hopper’s face, he liked it too.

If it was a date that wasn’t a date, then it didn’t need to be too fancy, right?

“I think this one’s it.”

“You think so?” he grinned.

“Yup.”

Hopper left right after that, and headed back to work. Apparently he had a meeting with the Mayor later, which he wasn’t looking forward to at all.

On the next unexpected visit of the day, came someone that almost made you screech with glee, but it took everything in you to dial it down. It was a certain curly haired boy who you came to know and love months prior, the same one who roped you and Steve into what would eventually be saving Hawkins.

“Dustin!” you blurted out, when he came by to see you.

“Nina!”

You hugged him tightly, although your paranoia over having unexpected visions kept you from hugging him too tight.

“You got a job!” he said.

“Yeah I did!”

“What’s with the cut on your forehead?”

Your fingers went to the tape still on above your eyebrow. “Long story. Did you see Steve yet?”

“No, I was about to but then I saw you as I was walking by.”

“Oh, well why don’t we go see him together?” you suggested.

It was about time for your break anyway (or so you told yourself), so the two of you headed on next door. 

Robin was manning the front again, and Dustin went right on ahead of you to look for Steve.

“Hi,” he smiled brightly.

“Hi,” she answered with an unamused expression.

“I’m Dustin.”

“I’m Robin.”

“Pleasure to meet you. Is he here?”

“Is who here?”

When she noticed you walking up behind him, she perked up a little.

“Hey, Y/N.”

“Hey, Robin.”

Dustin furrowed his brow. “Y/N?”

His question was interrupted by the sudden opening of the back door, and the entrance of Steve Harrington in full uniform. The way he came in was as if someone had summoned him and that someone was Dustin Henderson. His eyes were wide with excitement, completely slack jawed. At the sight of him, you were already on the verge of laughter.

He raised his arms up. “Henderson.”

Dustin laughed gleefully and pointed at his friend, who he hadn’t seen all summer. Steve cheered and bounced around the counter to him, repeating his name.

“Henderson! He’s back.”

He looked between you and Robin, expecting the same amount of excitement, but all he got was a weirded out look from the latter and giggling from the former.

“You got the job!” Dustin yelled.

“I got the job!” Steve pretended to blow into an air horn and then proceeded to shake Dustin’s hand, which began an elaborate handshake that had you and robin wide eyed.

When they were done, Robin looked to you and said, “How many children do the two of you have?”

You shrugged dramatically, “I’ve stopped keeping track.”

***

Dustin updated the two of you on his life away at camp while you sat at a booth and he ate a huge serving of ice cream. Apparently he has a girlfriend now, named Suzy, and he was saying how she was hotter than Phoebe Cates, which neither you nor Steve believed. Although you thought it was very sweet that he had a girlfriend who loved him despite not having two front teeth.

“So do you really just get to eat as much as you want?” Dustin asked, motioning to the bowl of ice cream.

Steve had his arm around you, and he moved his hands around as he talked.

“Yeah. I mean, sure. It’s not really a good idea for me though. You know, I gotta keep in shape for the lady,” he motioned to you with his head.

Robin snorted when she heard that.

You groaned, “Oh God.”

“What?” Steve asked defensively.

“As if eating or not eating ice cream is what’s keeping us together.”

He winked and said, “You know what I mean.”

You rolled your eyes, while Dustin and Robin muttered, “Ew.”

Dustin pointed to Robin. “She seems cool.”

“She’s not,” Steve answered swiftly.

You wanted to laugh because the only reason you knew he didn’t like Robin was because she poked fun at him, and even though you were wary of her, she made some very fair points.

“So, where are the other knuckleheads?”

“They ditched me yesterday,” Dustin answered somberly.

You frowned. At the same time you and Steve uttered, “No!”

“My first day back! Can you believe that shit?”

“Woah, seriously?” Steve was dumbfounded, and you were pissed alongside Dustin. The next time you saw El you were gonna ask her what her problem was. 

“Those little shits,” you whispered.

“I swear to God,” he took another spoonful of ice cream and with his mouth full, he pointed at you both and said, “They’re gonna regret it though, big time, when they don’t get to share in all my glory.”

Both you and Steve exchanged confused looks.

“Glory?” Steve snorted. “What glory?”

That’s when he proceeded to whisper and then badly blurt out that he had intercepted a secret Russian communication when he was trying to contact Suzy last night. And while Steve was trying to shush him, and listen in on the rest of his conversation, you had started to zone out as past visions replayed before you.

_Dustin on top of a hill, speaking into a radio. A male voice speaking another language, you now could only guess was Russian. “Suzy, do you copy?”_

Finally, something pertaining to your visions that could help you get to the bottom of this.

“Oh my god,” suddenly came out of your lips, interrupting Steve and Dustin, who looked at you weirdly now.

“What?” they both asked.

You regarded them and said, “This was in one of my visions. Dustin speaking into the radio. Hearing a strange Russian voice. They’re starting to come true.”

Steve nodded, “I remember you said something about that.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Dustin sputtered, “You’re having crazy visions again?”

You stopped in your tracks and sighed, remembering that only you, Steve, and Hopper knew anything about this, and you were going to have to fill in yet another person. So, you did. Steve did his best to fill in any blanks that he remembered, or chimed in when you felt like you needed help (which was adorable and you appreciated). You didn’t like that you were all in the middle of Scoops and that there were people around, but if you whispered low enough, you figured you’d be fine. Robin was busy working anyhow.

By the end, Dustin’s eyes were as wide as disks. He was far beyond the most excited person to have found out about this.

“So I was right, it is a Russian transmission and we could save the world!”

“Basically.”

He pumped his arm victoriously and Steve snorted.

“Easy there, kid. Don’t hurt yourself.” 

“By any chance, do your visions have the translation?” Dustin asked you.

“I’ll have to double check my journal, but since I don’t know Russian to begin with, there’s no way for me to know.”

He then went into his backpack, and pulled out a red Russian to English dictionary and held it up in his hand.

“Then I guess we’re gonna have to get started on translating.”

***

As much as you would’ve liked to help the guys get started on cracking this code, you had your own job to get back to (some of you were more responsible than others). You left Scoops with promises to get off of work early if you could, and to come back with your journal in hand to start rifling through the pages for clues.

However, your third surprise visit at The Gap, threw you in for a loop.

“El?” You sputtered at the sight of your little sister, who was looking around the store with Max by her side. “What are you doing here?”

It wasn’t your rule, but she wasn’t supposed to leave the cabin for safety reasons without Hopper’s permission. And now she was here in the middle of starcourt, which was full of people?

Max answered for her. “We’re shopping.”

You crossed your arms and looked to El again. “Does Hopper know you’re here?”

El giggled and shook her head in response.

You narrowed your eyes at the two of them, but instead of scolding her and telling her to go home, you smirked.

“Where are the rest of the kids? Where’s Mike and Lucas?”

“We don’t need our boyfriends to have fun. Plus, Mike’s an idiot,” Max chimed in.

You inclined your head in agreement. “Touche. That phone call was ridiculous.”

“Right?” Max threw up her hands.

El shrugged and said, “We’re having a girl’s day. Like you said.”

You smiled even wider. How could you possibly be mad at her at all when she was having her first girl’s day out, and having proper fun? After all, isn’t this what Hopper wanted? Time away from Mike?

“Have you seen anything you like?” You asked, motioning to the store.

Shyly, El asked, “How do I know…what I like?”

“You just try things on. Until you find something that feels like you.”

Max nodded next to her.

El’s eyes widened, “Like _me_?”

“Yeah,” Max said. “Not Hopper. Not Mike. You.”

El’s smile widened as wonder filled her, and you couldn’t help but mirror her. You didn’t expect to play make over twice in a day, but when it came to the people you cared about, you couldn’t help it. It was a good distraction from everything else.

The beauty of this makeover, however, was that for the most part, you and Max let El pick and try on whatever she wanted, until she found things that she truly loved. It was all a fit of giggles and shenanigans that was a joy to watch. You almost got emotional a few times, because you had never seen El so happy and so free in her entire life.

Of course, you only helped as best as you could, until they ran off to run around the rest of the mall.

It reminded you that you never had something like that, and it maybe even made you a little jealous. 

***

Eager to get started on this investigation and translation, you left work early just as you had promised and headed on over to Scoops Ahoy. It was still daylight out, but based on the orange glow through the skylight above, the sun was beginning to set. The mall was only getting fuller as more people got off of work and decided to take time out of their day to spend it at the mall rather than actually watching their kids at home.

When you went into the ice cream shop, you were surprised to see Steve manning the front, with no sign of Dustin or even Robin. He was serving Max and El their ice cream cones and asked,

“Wait a second. Are you even allowed to be here?”

With a giggle, the two girls ran off past you, back into the mall.

Steve then looked at you and asked again, “Is she even allowed to be here?”

You walked up to the counter and leaned against it.

“Nope, but Hopper doesn’t need to know.”

“That…okay.”

“What about you? Aren’t you supposed to be translating something? Where’s Dustin?”

He pursed his lips into a thin line.

“About that…”

You furrowed your brow, and in response, he led you into the back room where, to your annoyed dismay, Dustin and Robin were sitting at a table, working out the translation on the transmision. 

You looked at them all with arms crossed. “What the hell?”

When Dustin noticed you, he smiled brightly.

“Oh, hey, Nina!”

Robin peered up at you, confused.

“Nina? I thought your name was Y/N.”

“My friends call me Nina.” you looked at Steve, “I thought it was just going to be the three of us?”

“Yeah well…”

“Dustin and the Dingus here aren’t exactly discreet with their top secret projects,” Robin chimed in. “I figured everything out pretty quickly and since I have nothing else better to do other than this stupid job, I decided to help.”

She pointed to the journal in your hands.

“What’s that you got there?”

You held it tighter against your chest.

“Top secret information,” you said deadpan.

She snorted, “That’s not ominous at all.”

“It’s my diary.”

“You carry your diary around at work?”

You shrugged, “Maybe I like to journal when I’m on breaks.”

“I think we all know what you like to do on breaks.” She looked between you and Steve, who looked hilariously concerned over this whole interaction. It’s like he’s never seen two girls talk before.

“Can we get back to the subject matter here?” Dustin groaned. “Nina, Robin’s helping us out. She already figured out the first sentence.”

You snapped back to the task at hand, suddenly fueled by this piece of news.

“Really? What is it?”

He slid the notepad he had been writing on, across the table to you. You took it and scanned the page, which had a phrase written out in Russian, and underneath that, was the Russian translation.

_The week is long._

Your heart skipped a beat at the familiar phrase. You could feel the shadow of a headache in the back of your skull.

“So? You gonna help us figure out the rest?” Dustin asked.

“Is it just me, or does she look like she’s gonna be sick?” Robin said.

“Nina?”

You lowered the notepad and with one look around the room you uttered,

“I know what the rest of the message says.”


	3. "The New Recruit"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you, Dustin, and Steve realize that if you want to keep on with your investigation, you have to let Steve's coworker, Robin, in on a big secret.

You all stared at the white board, where you had written out the English translation to the message, the one that had that been plaguing you in visions and had written down in your journal.

_The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west._

Dustin stared at it in wonder, while Steve frowned at it in bewilderment (within reason considering it was a strange phrase). The only one who was still not on the same page, and was thoroughly confused about everything, was Robin.

“Listen, I was all for cracking this thing, but Dustin and I were using the recording and a dictionary. How the hell did you figure it out?”

You had to hold back a huff of annoyance. You really hadn’t been expecting Robin to be a part of all of this, otherwise you would’ve come up with a lie or some plan, so as to not have to reveal your secret about your very bizarre gift. In addition, the fact that a stranger was suddenly in on this was not something you bet on happening either.

It was a conglomeration of things. Maybe it was a hint of jealousy and trust issues. Maybe it was the suddenness of it all that led to your unpreparedness. Maybe it was the fact that for you, this was so much more than just a Russian transmission. 

This was the gate potentially being opened again, which meant another Mind Flayer, which meant more demogorgon creatures, which meant more of the people you loved being in danger. Needless to say, a lot rested on your mind at the moment, and Robin coming into the picture with her questions didn’t make it easier.

All you could come up with was a vague, “It’s a little complicated.” 

“Ah, yes, that explains it perfectly,” she sarcastically drawled.

“Just trust me when I say that it’s legit, alright?”

“Are you secretly Russian or something?”

“No,” you snorted in disbelief.

“Do you speak Russian, then?”

It was the perfect question that gave you the perfect opportunity to lie.

“Actually yeah, I do,” you said cooly.

She raised her eyebrows, as did Steve. 

“Oh, really? Like fluently?”

“Not exactly, but I learned quite a bit one summer when I was bored.”

You were shocked, and proud, with how quickly you came up with the lie.

“But why Russian? Why not Spanish or French?”

You shrugged, “All the cool spies speak Russian in movies.”

You felt stupid saying it but you were lucky to have a pair of dorks in the same room who agreed with you.

Dustin nodded, and Steve pointed at you in agreement.

“It’s true,” he said. “Doesn’t 007 know Russian?”

Robin looked between you both in disbelief, shook her head, giggling. It gave you dejavu.

“You’re all a bunch of dinguses. What is that, a requirement for your friend group?”

“Yeah if being a dingus means being awesome,” Dustin scoffed.

“Sure, that’s what it means.” She looked at you again and with a skeptical look in her eye. “Okay 007. If you know Russian, then riddle me this…what does ‘Nedelya dlinnaya’ mean?”

Every muscle in your face wanted to react, and showcase just how much she just threw you in for a loop. You didn’t know why she was so adamant about this, but you were starting to get annoyed. If you had known Robin was going to be involved in this at all, you would’ve done better with your lie and brushed up on some Russian, but you were caught by surprise to say the least.

Still, you answered with your best guess, even though you knew you’d get it wrong.

“It means ‘good morning’.” you said.

“Wrong, actually.”

“So, I’m not fluent, Robin,” you snided.

“Yes, but if you actually cracked the code with what little Russian you do know, then you’d know that ‘Nedelya dlinnaya’, means ‘The week is long’, you dingus. So, something’s not adding up.”

Her tone and the sound of her calling you a dingus set your blood to boil, and the rage must have been apparent in your eyes, because Steve strode over to you and put a hand on your arm as if you hold you back from launching yourself at her. It was probably the same expression you had when you attacked Billy Hargrove last year.

“Hey, hey, hey, let’s not do anything we’ll regret,” he said lowly. You both looked at each other, him with wide warning eyes, and you with a glare. “I know this isn’t ideal, but she did help us figure out the first part, which is the reason why you even knew to make the connection to your visions in the first place.”

You sighed. He was right. She was being helpful, and you wouldn’t have known that what you heard in your vision was the translation if she hadn’t figured out the first line. She just asked a lot of questions you didn’t like.

Robin raised her hands up defensively. “Look, I’m not trying to offend anybody, I’m just wondering why you turned up with a diary and a translation and feel the need to lie about how you got it.”

“Maybe because it’s a secret,” Steve spoke this time.

“Or you just wouldn’t believe it if we told you,” Dustin added.

She shrugged and leaned back in her chair. “Try me.”

There was silence in the room, save for the murmur that came from the mall on the other side of the window. You, Dustin, and Steve all exchanged looks, trying to communicate your thoughts on whether or not you should do it.

Finally, Dustin blurted out, “I say you just tell her Nina. She’s already in this and there’s no getting her out.”

Steve regarded you with a worried gaze. 

Robin frowned. “Tell me what?”

_She’s already in this and there’s no getting her out._

You took your journal and flipped it open until you found the page you were looking for. There were a lot of visions that repeated, and you kept count. One of them was Robin, laughing. And that’s when it hit you, just how important she was to all of this, to your future as well as everyone else’s. 

It was just like when you had visions of Steve, just before you met him. You didn’t know who he was, but you knew he was important, and that you needed to find him. Now, he was one of the people you loved the most in your life. And something told you, Robin was just going to be another addition to all of it.

Maybe you had trust issues, and that was because you didn’t know her yet, not really, but you had to trust her now. At least to get the ball rolling. You had to trust that even if she didn’t believe you, she’d be able to keep up, and believe you one day.

“Tell me what?” she repeated, impatient now. “And why are you looking through your diary?”

You closed it and put it down, before finally admitting, “I can see the future.”

There was silence again as all eyes were on Robin, waiting in anticipation for her reaction. As you expected, she broke out in a fit of giggles, reminiscent of your vision.

“You have got to be kidding, right? This is just another lie, right?”

You shook your head, but Dustin answered for you, “No, it’s true. Nina has clairvoyance. She has visions.”

“You mean ones where you put on a headdress and look into a crystal ball?”

“No!” you scoffed, and plopped down on the seat across from her.

“Sometimes they come to me in dreams and sometimes they come to me randomly. And sometimes if I listen to white noise or I touch someone’s skin, I can look at someone’s specific future.” You raised up your gloved hands. “That’s why I wear gloves.”

“You’re serious?” 

“Yes! And this diary?” you raised up the journal, “This diary is where I’ve been writing my most recent visions, because up until a few days ago, which was the blackout, I hadn’t had a major vision.”

You tossed it to her, and she immediately started flipping through it. 

“That’s how I knew the translation. In my vision someone, probably you, had already figured it out.”

She looked up at you, and at everyone else, who was just as serious about this. It was like she was waiting for the punchline.

“Okay….you said that you can see people’s future by touching them.”

“Yeah.”

“Can you prove it, and show me?”

Now, you raised your eyebrows in surprise. If you were honest, you should’ve expected this. One of the first things that Lucas asked you to do when he met you was to tell him his future this way. You just hadn’t done it in so long…

Steve was leaning on the table now, with both hands over the top. He was looking at you questioningly, wondering if you were gonna do it, or if you were gonna try and punch her again, but then you nodded. There was a chance you’d get dizzy or have a nosebleed, but at this point it was crucial if you wanted to get past this.

“Fine.” You slipped off your right glove and put your hand face up over the table. “Give me your hand.”

Hesitantly, Robin did just that. She raised her right hand from under the table and placed it over yours. Once her skin touched yours, it took no time for visions to flood your mind.

_Robin, looking at you and saying, “I cracked it.” Robin laughing. You, her, and Steve, wearing raincoats, holding hands in the rain. Robin screaming against a wall. Robin calling out to you and Steve. You, Robin, and Steve on the floor of bathroom stalls. Your own voice: “So you had a thing for Steve in high school, huh?” Robin’s voice: “No, it isn’t because I had a crush on Steve. It’s because she wouldn’t stop staring at him. Tammy Thompson. I wanted her to look at me.” Hiding from something. Riding in the back of a car, looking at something that’s chasing it. Fireworks. Robin hugging you._

Like breaking the surface tension of a body of water, you came out of it with a gasp for air, and would’ve nearly fallen over in your chair if Steve hadn’t been there, crouched beside you the entire time. Dustin watched carefully and Robin leaned back in her chair, as if in fear. If she didn’t believe you before, the mere sight of you like this may have already proven your point.

“You’re bleeding,” she said.

Dustin got a paper towel and handed it to you, which you took gratefully, and used it to remove what was under your nose. You steadied your breathing as best as you could, going over everything you saw. One vision in particular stuck out in your mind, one that may or may not have changed your feelings about Robin. But not in a bad way.

“What did you see?” she asked.

You finally looked at her, but for the first time, it wasn’t angry, or jealous, or annoyed (well maybe a little). You wanted to say it, to prove to her that you did have clairvoyance, but one glance at the boys told you it was a bad idea. This was a secret that was hers to keep and hers to tell when she was ready, not yours.

So, you opened up your journal, took a pen out of your bag, and secretively wrote down in a corner:

_I know about Tammy Thompson._

Everyone watched you like you were being weird, but you knew what you were doing.

You ripped off that piece of the page, folded it up, and handed it to Robin. Based on the expression on her face, she already had an idea what it said. With the note in hand, she got up from her seat and went to a corner to read it. 

Steve and Dustin huddled over you and started whispering to you about, “What the hell was that?”, “What did you see?”, “Why’d you write it in a note?”

It was mind boggling to you that they couldn’t piece together that whatever you had seen was a secret that you clearly didn’t want to blurt out loud.

“It’s a secret, you idiots. Just because I know everyone’s future, doesn’t mean you get to.”

The bickering stopped when Robin ripped up the note and threw it in the trash. Her blue eyes were wide and no doubt her heart was hammering against her ribs, it was obvious she was freaking out. Still, she sat back down, and with a nod she uttered, 

“Okay…I believe you. You can see the future.”

The rest of the group took a collective sigh of relief, and you personally felt like some part of the weight was taken off of your shoulders.

“Now that that’s settled, can we get back to deciphering this Russian transmission guys?” Dustin whined.

A bell aggressively dinged on the other side of the window, calling upon one of the Scoops Ahoy workers to attend to a customer in line. Everybody, including you, groaned at the sound. Steve sent Robin up since it was overdue for her turn, and she begrudgingly did so. The lines were getting crazier, so they needed both pairs of hands on deck.

Meanwhile you and Dustin pored over your journal, looking for clues, and talking about how everything could be connected, from your visions, to the blackout, to the Russian transmissions. You just didn’t know how yet.

Before you knew it, it was closing time. While Steve and Robin cleaned up and closed, you all continued your conversation loudly, since there were no more people in sight. Starcourt was empty and that was your favorite time of day.

Dustin and Robin walked side by side, while you and Steve followed closely behind. He put his arm around you and you leaned into him. The only lights that were on were neon ones lining the way, and they cast a pink glow on everyone’s faces.

Now that proving your powers was out of the way, it was time to get back to business and figure this code out.

Steve was the first to speak up out of everyone. “Not to question you, babe, but are you sure your translation means anything? It sounds really fucking weird for it to be some kind of top secret Russian message. It’s total nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense,” you argued. “It can’t be, not if I got a dozen visions about it.”

He raised his hands defensively, “Alright. Sorry for having a hard time wrapping my head around this weird sentence.”

“It’s too specific to be nonsense,” Dustin chimed in. “It’s obviously a code.”

“What do you mean ‘a code’?” Steve furrowed his brow.

“Like a super secret spy code.”

Your boyfriend snorted, “That’s a stretch.”

He could believe in aliens and fight them with a bat with nails, but he couldn’t believe that spies would be involved in this? You had seen too many crazy things in your life to not be at least open to all the crazy possibilities at this point.

“Well…” you started, but then Robin interrupted you, finishing your own thought.

“I don’t know, is it?”

“Wait, you’re buying into this spy thing?” Steve inquired in a high voice.

“Listen, just for kicks, let’s entertain the possibility that this is a secret Russian transmission. What did you think they were gonna say? ‘Fire the warhead at noon’?”

“Exactly,” Dustin concurred.

“And my translation is correct, I know that for sure,” you said.

Robin talked with her hands. “So, ‘The silver cats feeds’…why would anyone talk like that unless they’re trying to mask the true meaning of their message?”

You nodded, “Exactly.”

“Why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?”

“Exactly,” Dustin sang.

Steve mouthed the word all while making a silly face to make fun of it all, and you smacked him in the arm, to which he hissed.

Robin gave Dustin a sidelong glance, “So that confirms your suspicion.”

“Evil Russians.”

With a goofy smile, Robin turned to Steve and said, “I can’t believe I’m about to agree with this strange child and your mysterious girlfriend, but, yeah, totally, Evil Russians.”

You narrowed your eyes at her when she called you Steve’s “Mysterious girlfriend,” but she didn’t take notice. It wasn’t an insult, but it wasn’t a compliment either. After all, she was just stating the facts, you were mysterious when it came to her.

“So how do we crack it?” Dustin asked.

However, you didn’t hear the rest of the conversation, because Steve, who had been by your side this whole time, let his arm drop from your shoulders, and broke off from the group. With a frown, you looked for where he was going, until you saw him stop in front of an animatronic horse that kids put quarters in and rode for fun.

“Steve? What are you..?”

You walked over to him and watched as he dug through his pockets and fished out coins so vigorously that he dropped almost half of them, and then the rest when he didn’t find what he was looking for. Your eyes were wide with confusion, and at this point, even Dustin and Robin stopped.

“What are you doing?” Robin called out.

“It’s a quarter.” He looked at you quickly. “Baby, do you have a quarter?”

You looked between him and the ride multiple times, wondering if he really has lost his mind, and if he was really thinking about riding that thing, with this size, and at this time of night. Still, you dug into your pockets and purse, for a quarter.

“Baby, I need a quarter! Do any of you have a quarter?”

The other two jogged over, Robin amidst giggles.

“Sure you’re tall enough for that ride?”

At this point, Steve lost his patience, and shouted, “Quarter, quarter!”

It made all of you jump, and start digging into your pockets even faster. You cursed him under your breath, “Okay! Jesus..”

You couldn’t find one, but luckily Robin tossed him the one she had in her hand. Steve hastily crouched down and shoved the coin into the small slot by the horse, which automatically powered it to start moving. Music played from the little ride, it reminded you of a circus or a carnival.

Steve breathlessly listened to it, and the rest of you were in complete dismay.

“Are you…getting on it?” you asked.

Robin was more sarcastic, “Need help getting up, little Stevie?”

You and Dustin both chuckled at that, but Steve shushed you. His face was completely serious, which made you snap out of it. You knew the difference between Steve being a little shit, and him being completely serious, and this instance was the latter. There was something you weren’t getting, that he was noticing right now.

“Would you guys just shut up and listen?”

You decided to get down on your knees next to Steve, and he gave you a thankful look. All of you got quiet for a second, and listened to the repetitive music, but the only one who seemed to know what was going on, was Dustin.

“Holy shit,” he muttered, making you all look at him. “The music.”

Both you and Robin watched him bewilderedly as he took off his backpack and started fishing through it for something.

“The music!” he said louder, to emphasize something you still weren’t getting.

He took out the silver tape recorder and started playing the tape inside, with the transmission. The man started speaking.

Robin shook her head, “I don’t understand.”

You kept listening intently, until you heard it, what Steve and Dustin were talking about. You had only heard pieces of it in your visions, but not truly in real life, but when the man started speaking in Russian, and the familiar music started playing in the background, it didn’t take long for you to put two and two together.

Your jaw dropped, “Oh.”

“It’s the same song as in the recording!”

You looked at Steve in awe and he nodded. The fact that he noticed that when nobody else did made you feel a sense of pride. If you had heard that recording enough times, who knew if you would’ve noticed it too? Clearly Dustin and Robin hadn’t.

“Maybe they have horses like this in Russia,” Robin contested.

Steve shook his head, “Indiana Flyer? I don’t…I don’t think so.”

“Yeah I highly doubt it,” you added.

Your boyfriend looked off at something you couldn’t see, he was thinking hard. If he didn’t take this code seriously before, he certainly did now.

“This code, it…didn’t come from Russia,” he looked at you and then at the others, before saying, “It came from here.”

***

The plan for tomorrow was to dedicate the day to watching the people that come in and out of Starcourt, and see if there are any suspicious individuals that may or may not look like Russian spies. The other part was to crack the actual code itself, that way you’d be killing two birds with one stone. It was a race to figure this whole thing out.

That night, Steve gave you a ride back home since your car was currently out of commission. You decided that you wanted to go to the cabin this time, instead of his place, since you had spent plenty of time away from home, and needed to reconvene with Hopper and El. If you were honest you were missing them, and wanted an update on how the rest of their days went considering the first half. Not to mention, you had a strange feeling gnawing at the back of your mind that you needed to go home.

In the driveway, while you were kissing Steve goodnight, he brought up the events of earlier today, with Robin in particular.

“What was is that you wrote in that paper, anyway?”

You scoffed, “I already told you, it’s a secret. If she wants to tell you one day, that’s on her.”

“Right. I’m surprised you told her about your powers. For a while there I thought you hated her, and that you were going to kill her when she called you a ‘dingus’.”

“I didn’t ‘hate her’,” you tried to explain, “I was just….defensive. Maybe even a little…jealous.”

He raised his eyebrows and gave you a shit eating grin.

“Jealous? Really?” He asked it like it was the first time you had ever gotten jealous, and perhaps it was.

You rolled your eyes, “Yes, but not anymore. I was just being…stupid.”

Not to mention that vision about her swinging for the other team really gave you a reality check. The only thing you had to worry about in the first place was her curiosity, but even that was handled now. She was pretty cool and really funny, not to mention Dustin liked her and he was a great judge of character.

“Nina, please,” he placed a hand on the back of your neck, which made your breath hitch, “You know you’re my girl. You know I’d never think twice about anyone else.”

“I know, I know, I’d kill you if you did,” you said with a smirk.

To which he widened his eyes and nodded in agreement. “I know.”

Saying that suddenly reminded you of a conversation you had with your dad back at The Gap when you were helping him pick out clothes for his date with Joyce. You perked up suddenly, wanting to mention it to Steve before you forgot.

“Speaking of…Apparently Hopper threatened Mike last night.”

“No way. Really?”

“Yeah. He scared the kid so much that he came up with some stupid lie to not see El today and El was freaking out over it. Super pissed.”

Steve shook his head, “What a shit head. Doesn’t he know that that’s the worst thing he could’ve done?”

“He’s 14, what do you expect?” you said. “When Hopper did that to you back then, you didn’t do shit like that.”

“Yeah well because I’m not stupid Freshmen, I’ve had girlfriends before, so I know the deal, plus….that conversation with Hopper went differently than you think it did.”

You frowned, clearly not knowing what he meant. You even twisted your body to hear his explanation.

“What do you mean? Didn’t he give you the whole ‘My daughter, my house, my rules’ talk?”

“Well, kinda, but it wasn’t as extreme as I told you it was. He just said that I needed to have boundaries and respect and that if I broke your heart, you’d kill me and then he would. That he has his ways, which I never doubted for a second.”

You inclined your head in agreement, “That’s fair. And what did you say?”

He chuckled to himself and you got impatient when he said nothing.

“What? Why are you laughing?”

“Because it was some sappy shit, it’s not important.”

“What do you mean ‘not important’? What sappy shit did you say to my dad, Harrington?” you shoved him playfully.

He closed his eyes to gather himself. “Alright, alright.” Then he looked at you and said, “I said, ‘I love her, Chief. I wouldn’t dream of hurting her.’ It was the first time I ever said that I loved you out loud.”

Tears stung in the back of your eyes and you had to fight to blink them back, although Steve had seen you cry plenty of times at this point.

You could be having the roughest time, mentally or physically, you could be insecure and doubting your place in this world, but you could always count on Steve to be there and love you. You had Hopper and El too, but Steve’s love was different. You had stared death in the face together, and would gladly do it again.

“Steve…” you uttered softly.

“Are you crying?”

“No!” you blurted defensively, followed by a softer, “Maybe.”

He laughed, and although you tried to hide your face, he still looked for your eyes, and kissed you even.

“I love you,” you whispered, trying to keep your voice even.

“I love you too,” he smirked. 

“You’re my favorite idiot.”

He rolled his eyes at that, pretending to be offended, but you could see he wanted to laugh. “I know.”

“I mean it,” you said. “You did a good job figuring out the whole Indiana Flyer thing by the way.”

“Thanks. If I hadn’t recognized that music in the background we would’ve been stuck on a wild goose chase.”

“That’s for sure.”

“Sorry for doubting your visions.”

You shrugged, “It did sound pretty crazy, I don’t blame you.”

“So…see you tomorrow? My place?”

“Of course.”

You kissed him again, long and tender to make up for the fact that you wouldn’t be in his arms tonight.

***

When you got inside, the first thing you saw was Hopper sitting on the couch, watching TV, and he looked irked, which is how he usually was when Mike was around. You looked over at the closed door that led to your room and you swore you heard chatter on the other side.

_Was he back already?_

Your dad sat up as soon as you came in and asked you about your day.

“It was good. Interesting to say the least. I started writing in a journal and I’m pretty sure we have a lead on something.”

“‘We?’” he asked.

“Me, Steve, Dustin, and Steve’s coworker, Robin.”

“You’re kidding, you kids roped another one in?”

“Hey blame Dustin. It’s always Dustin.” You regarded Hopper and noticed that he was still wearing the shirt you helped him pick out, which jump started you to remembering that he had a date earlier this evening. “Oh my god. How did your date go?”

He deflated instantly, and any ounce of happiness left. With a sigh, he leaned back against the couch and said, “It didn’t.”

You frowned, “What do you mean?”

“I mean the date didn’t happen. Joyce stood me up.”

Your jaw completely dropped. This was the last thing you ever expected to happen, especially when it came to such a sweet woman like Joyce. Something couldn’t be right.

“No! Really? Did you try calling her? Maybe something happened.”

He waved away your suggestions tiredly. “I’m too exhausted and pissed to even think about doing any of that. Besides, with her track record, if something bad happened, she’d come to me.”

This was the first time you had ever seen Hopper anywhere close to being down on himself. Even if he never said it out loud, you could tell that he had strong feelings for Joyce, everyone could. They were perfect together and this was the first indication that she might feel the same way. But now even that little ray of hope was gone.

You strode over to stand behind him and bent over to give him a hug.

“I’m sorry, dad. She’s crazy for skipping out on a date with you.”

He chuckled and patted your arm gently. “Thanks, kid.”

You straightened back up and ran your eyes over the fabric of his shirt. “The shirt looks great. Maybe you can save it for a different occasion.”

He snorted, “Yeah, right.”

The sound of voices coming from your room took your attention away. Seeing that the door was completely shut and Hopper wasn’t completely losing his shit was a rare sight. So, you pointed in that direction and asked,

“Is Mike here again?”

“Oh, no. Thank God, no. It’s actually El’s friend, Max. Can you believe that? El finally has a friend who’s not her stupid boyfriend.”

You raised your eyebrows. “That is surprising.”

With that, you headed over to your room to put down your stuff. You were originally going to get into bed, but there were other plans, apparently, so you checked on the girls. As soon as you opened the door, there were a pair of gasps, and some fumbling. A glass bottle fell to the floor and you watched it as it rolled to your feet.

“Hey! Oh…”

When you shut the door and glanced up, you were confused to see that both Max and El were sitting on her bed, except they both looked scared, either because you caught them doing something they shouldn’t, or because of something else. What was even worse was the fact that El was tugging a blindfold from her eyes, and a drop of blood was falling from her nose.

You didn’t need to ask to know that she had just been inside the void, and based on her facial expression, whatever she saw couldn’t have been good.

“What the hell?” you uttered. “What’s going on?”

“We were just trying to have some fun, but then I think El saw something.”

You peered over at El, your sisterly instincts kicking in. “What? What did you see?”

Like a deer in headlights she looked between the two of you and said, “It’s Billy. I think there’s something wrong.”


	4. "Spread Thin"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you help you sister and her friend look into Billy Hargrove's whereabouts, before remembering that you have an investigation of your own.

Apparently the girls were playing a game of spin the bottle, where El would spy on whoever’s name the bottle landed on. The idea occurred to them when they decided to spy on Mike and see what he was up to. It was a total violation of privacy, but you could see where their 14 year old brains were coming from.

When the bottle landed on Billy Hargrove’s name, El went into the void and looked for him. However, what she found was much weirder and more sinister than she imagined. She saw Billy, crouched over something, when suddenly he sensed El and looked right at her.

At first, Max wrote it off as something weird that was normal, but you knew, as someone who had been in the void before, that this wasn’t normal, even by weird standards. The only ones who had the capability of seeing you in the void, were beings with strange abilities, or worse, from the upside down.

So, if you took this into account, mixed with the fact that Billy Hargrove had been popping up in your visions lately, you could deduce that it was anything but a coincidence.

Now, you all sat in a circle on El’s bed, with your journal in the middle opened to a fresh page with every single vision you had with Billy thus far.

_Billy Hargrove, in his blue car, swerving off the road towards a building at night. Billy Hargrove, with his veins protruding from his skin. Billy Hargrove, with his veins protruding from his skin, with his hand around your throat. Someone calling out Billy’s name._

It wasn’t a lot, but you had your ways of finding out more if you needed to. Although when it came to Billy Hargrove, you were reluctant to say the least.

“So…something is wrong with him?” Max asked after a moment of silence.

“You mean other than the usual? Yeah, something’s wrong with him,” you said.

“I was right,” El uttered.

“Yeah.”

“But…what happened?” Max queried.

You shrugged, “Something tells me that it has to do with when he swerved off the road, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense for it to be a vision. If the gate is opened again, then it could be….”

“The Mind Flayer,” El finished the thought for you, her eyes getting dark.

The thought of the Mind Flayer gave you shivers down your spine. You hadn’t had visions of that giant creature in the red sky, watching your every move, but you remembered it as clear as day. Poor Will Byers was its last victim, and now that it didn’t have him, it could have picked someone else.

Suddenly you were wondering if Will was okay…

Max’s voice interrupted your thoughts. “What do we do?”

“Investigate. Find Billy,” El said sternly.

You nodded. It was the best and most obvious idea. Whatever Billy was up to if he was in fact possessed by something, he had to be stopped. However, the thought of your little sister getting mixed up with this, with only her friend, scared you. Billy Hargrove all on his own was a nightmare, you couldn’t imagine what he would be like controlled by an alien from the upside down.

“Tomorrow morning,” you said. “Tomorrow you can meet us here Max and we can all go to your house together. And investigate.”

She seemed surprised that you were tagging along, but nodded, “Okay, fine.”

***

More dreams came that night.

_A man who delivered packages, with a uniform that read LYNX on the front in red font. You, Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Lucas’ little sister in a large room with boxes, screaming. Steve getting punched, you screaming his name. Hopper with something glowing in the back, crying as he smiled sadly. 6.62607004._

When you woke up, the vision of Hopper crying hit you with a surge of anxiety that you couldn’t quite shake. You had never seen Hopper cry before, and you didn’t know the context of the vision, but you hoped it didn’t mean what your fears were telling you it meant.

There was still time for more visions, and still time to change things.

Whatever it was, you wrote it all down - the number first so you wouldn’t forget.

***

As promised, the next morning, Max met you guys outside of the cabin. At this point, Hopper didn’t ask twice when he saw that it was just going to be you three having a “girl’s day” (as far as he knew). However, your car was finally back from the shop, and Hopper did have protests about you driving again now that your visions were back in full swing.

You ordered the girls to get into the blue bug, while you argued with your dad.

“Dad, it’s fine. Now that I know they’re back, I can sense when I’m having one so I’ll stop if I have to. I’ll go slow, I promise.”

“Yeah, but if you get into another accident, I’m personally taking away your license. Got it?”

You saluted him and said, “Yes, sir.”

With that, he left you alone. Although when you got in the car and started the ignition, Max piped up from the backseat,

“Are you sure this is safe?”

You huffed a groan, “Visions aside, I’m a great driver, alright? Now, shut up, please?”

She grumbled something you could barely hear, but didn’t care to know. At this point you were just happy to have your car and your music back, which you popped in immediately.

Max gave you directions to her house and on the drive there she complained about how she wished you were all at the mall instead of doing this. She believed you and El, but it seemed like she had her doubts about whether or not Billy was truly acting out of the ordinary.

Before you knew it, you were parked right in front of a very small, but very cute home. From what you could tell, it looked empty.

“His car’s not here,” Max said.

That took a little bit of weight off of your chest. At least you didn’t have to get into it with the asshole anytime soon. For a hot second you were wondering where Steve kept his old bat with the nails.

“You really wanna do this?”

You looked at El, who was looking straight at the house and nodded.

With that, all three of you got out of the car, and started your investigation of Billy Hargrove. The main place you’d be looking in? His room.

The second you went inside, you frowned in disgust, and were grateful that you had gloves on. The place was littered with dirty clothes, empty beer cans, old food, and plates with cigarette butts.

You scanned the area with your eyes, afraid to touch anything, even though eventually you’d have to pick something to see if it sparked anything. While Max looked through the drawers and groaned when she found his porn stache.

“Gag me with a spoon.”

Across the way, there was a door that led to the adjoining bathroom. El went straight for it, and the two of you followed closely behind. And maybe it was all in your head, but the energy felt different in that room, and it was only confirmed when you all saw the empty bags of ice floating on top of a full, abandoned bath.

It wouldn’t have been strange by itself, but considering the context, it was weird.

“What if it’s just for his muscles or something? He works out a lot,” Max said.

You shook your head, “Something tells me that’s not the case.”

A thought popped into your head, one from a long time ago.

_He likes it cold._

You scanned the rest of the bathroom, looking for any more clues. To your dismay, you didn’t have to look very far, because the second you looked down at the sink, you noticed blood on one of the cabinets.

El’s eyes went wide.

“What the hell?” you whispered.

She bent down and opened the cabinet doors with no hesitation, and took out something you couldn’t see past her body. 

“What is it?”

She straightened up, and in the reflection of the mirror, you could see she was reaching into a green trash can, and out of it, she fished a red lifeguard fanny pack, followed by a yellow, bloodied whistle.

Your bottom lip dropped in shock. You had seen those two things before, you didn’t need your journal this time, because it was in your mind as clear as day. Mostly because it was the strangest vision that stood out to you from the rest.

The lifeguard at the public pool. It was the same pool Billy worked at, and if these things were hers, and they were all covered in blood, then that didn’t mean anything good.

“Oh no,” you uttered.

Max looked at you now. “Is there any way you can get any visions without Billy being here?”

You looked around and shook your head. “My best bet is skin to skin contact, but….I could try going under, and see if it triggers anything?”

“Okay, yeah.”

To make the best environment for you to go into the void, you unplugged the bathtub, and turned on the shower to have as a source of white noise, while Max looked for something clean for you to use as a blindfold. When everything was ready, you sat on the floor of the bathroom, and with a nod to the girls, you put on the blindfold, and went in.

You took deep, even breaths, and focused all of your energy on Billy. You repeated his name over and over in your mind, and visualized his face. The sound of the shower faded away, and suddenly everything got cold. The blindfold was gone from your eyes, and when you opened them, you found yourself to be standing in a deep dark space. The floor was damp at your feet.

Ahead of you, there was nobody.

“Billy?” you called out.

You heard a chuckle coming from behind you, and whirled around to see the source. To no surprise, it was him, with that same curly blonde hair and that stupid face, except he was looking right at you. He shouldn’t have been able to do that.

“What happened to you?” you asked. “What did you do to that lifeguard?”

He laughed the most sinister laugh you had ever heard from him as of late. 

All he said was, “I remember you.”

Somehow, you had a feeling it wasn’t Billy talking.

Pain in your skull came in a wave and you buckled to your knees with a grunt. Your eyes rolled to the back of your head and images came, all about Billy.

_A lumber yard. Billy, sitting at a dinner table with people you didn’t know. The lifeguard (Heather, you could hear her name) and Billy standing over two bodies on the floor. A giant creature feeding on people in a dark place. Billy, sweating and crying on a tiled floor, calling for Max. El, lifting Billy in the air before throwing him. Billy, with his hand around El’s throat in the middle of a place that looked familiar. “You were happy.”_

“Nine!”

“Nine!”

With a jolt, you came back to reality and as soon as you became aware, you pulled off the blindfold and let in the light. Both El and Max were on their knees next to you, worried. Your heart was beating fast from the experience and from what you just saw.

“What happened?” they both asked.

You shook your head, “Nothing good.”

You relayed every last bit of information as you wrote it down on the page dedicated to Billy Hargrove. As usual, they were like pieces of a puzzle, but some were missing and you needed more context, but it was enough to give you all a warning of what to expect.

You had been so wrapped up in all of this, that when you checked your watch and saw that you had missed going to Steve’s house, you gasped out loud.

“Shit!”

“What?” Max asked worriedly, probably thinking something else came up, but really you had almost forgotten about the other side of all of this that had to do with Russians and a secret code. You promised you’d help figure this out, and you couldn’t spread yourself too thin.

“I have somewhere I have to go. I have to meet Steve at Starcourt. We have our own investigation going on.”

“Is ‘investigation’ just code for making out?”

“No! This is really important and I’m already late.”

You looked between the two of them worriedly, El specifically. You didn’t want to leave her alone, but you also didn’t want to be overbearing. Knowing her, she probably would’ve done this by herself, and is capable of doing so. After all, she went to Chicago by herself and came back in one piece.

“Are you guys capable of continuing this investigation without me?”

“Of course,” El said.

“We can take care of ourselves.”

“Just for today, okay? If you need me, radio Dustin, I’ll be with him.”

At the same time they both blurted out, “Dustin?”

“Yeah, it’s a long story. And here,” you took out your journal and ripped out the piece with your visions of Billy, folded it up and handed it to El, “Take this, maybe it’ll help. And if you see Billy…be careful. Clearly he’s dangerous. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Remembering that you had a car now, you stopped and asked, “Do you need a ride?”

***

You dropped the girls off at the public pool, their next stop on the investigation, while you quickly got to Starcourt. You dashed inside, aiming straight for Scoops Ahoy, when you heard Steve’s voice call to you from somewhere in the mall.

“Nina!”

You whirled around, looking everywhere amongst the faces, until you saw him waving over to you from behind a plant. Dustin was there right next to him, looking through a pair of binoculars. With a perplexed expression, you went over and Steve straightened up to talk to you.

Immediately he started questioning you about your whereabouts in a fast ramble.

“Baby, where were you? When you didn’t show up to my house, I was worried that something happened. I thought you got into another accident, or something. I even called your house, but then Hopper said you were out with El. ”

You bared your teeth apologetically. You really hadn’t thought about how much he’s be worrying about you, but considering the circumstances you could see why he would be.

“Really?”

“Yeah, you had me freaking out.” 

You hugged him around the waist tightly both as a greeting and as reassurance.

“I know, I’m sorry. Something came up with El and Max. Something crazy, which I’ll tell you about later. But I had to help them and I lost track of time. I’m alive, though, okay?” You motioned to your whole and healthy self. “What are you guys doing, anyway?”

“We’re looking out for any suspicious individuals, remember?” Dustin answered.

“Right,” you nodded. Noting the absence of a third party, you frowned and asked, “Where’s Robin?”

“She’s still in Scoops, decoding the message.”

***

You headed on over to Scoops Ahoy and found Robin sitting on the counter against the sliding window. She had a drink in one hand and a notepad in the other, with her headphones around her neck. You walked up to the counter and dinged the bell to get her attention.

Without looking up, she asked, “What can I get for you?”

“One silver cat please.”

Confused by the odd request, she looked up. When she saw it was you, realization set in, and she smiled.

“Ha. Where have you been? You had the dingus worried for your life.”

You sat on the counter and slid on over to the other side. “I had some business to take care of with my sister. She needed me.”

“Ah ok. Is your sister the red head?”

“No, that’s Max. My sister’s name is El. You probably haven’t seen her since she’s not allowed to be here without permission.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Hopper’s strict, I’m guessing.”

“Protective, more like.” 

She nodded and added, “You know I used to wonder what you saw in Steve, but the more I see you guys interact close up, the more I start to see it.”

You raised your eyebrows in surprise, “Really?”

“Yeah. No offense, but I used to think he was just some asshole with an ego, but now…I don’t know. He seems to really care about you.”

The fact that someone else could see that, warmed your heart.

“That’s the thing about Steve, when you get to know him, you learn that he’s not just some asshole with an ego. I mean he has his moments, but really, he’s just an idiot with a big heart. Amongst other things.”

“That’s good to hear,” she said. “Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington’s got a heart.”

You had heard that nickname used before many times when Steve was still in high school. His long standing popularity and his hairstyle won him that name. It was the reason you got so many stares when you started dating as you were basically a ghost in Hawkins at the time, dating the “king” of Hawkins High School. Even though you knew him better and you were happy together, those last few months gave you a glimpse of who he used to be. Although at that point, he reminded you that he didn’t care about all of that anymore.

The tone of voice Robin used when saying it, reminded you of those who didn’t particularly like Steve. If she knew that name, she must have gone to high school with him.

You walked up to the counter she was on, she adjusted herself to make space for you, and you jumped up so that you were side by side in front of the window.

“I’m guessing you knew Steve in high school?”

“I knew _of_ him, but not personally, no. I was a band geek and he was busy, well, being Steve.” She flashed her blue eyes, which were full of insinuation. 

“So, I’ve heard.”

You had heard enough from Hopper and the kids about how much of an asshole Steve used to be. It was honestly wild to hear considering the version of Steve you grew to know and love now.

But then, you were reminded of a time when you yelled at him on the train tracks for being a dick, and giving Dustin shallow dating advice. That was only a fraction but it was enough to piss you off. However, he apologized shortly after, no arguments. That’s when you saw that he was just caught up in playing a part, that he was actually sweet underneath all of that.

The life threatening situation really helped bring that part out.

He was vastly different from who Robin probably remembered him to be, and hopefully, she would see that one day.

Wanting to change subjects, and get back to the topic at hand, you motioned to the notepad with your head. “Have you figured out what any of it means yet?”

“I keep going over it in my head, but nothing makes sense yet. I’m stuck on ‘The silver cat feeds’. There’s nothing that reminds me of a damn silver cat.”

You looked upwards towards the ceiling, racking your brain as if the answer was going to be there somehow. The only thing you could think of was something from your visions which was the word, LYNX.

You brought it up to Robin and even showed her your journal so she could see the spelling. Her eyes widened excitedly.

“Well, you know a lynx is a cat, right?”

That got you excited, “Really?”

“Yeah! So, it’s definitely a clue. Do you remember where this was?”

With a deflated frown you uttered, “No. I’ve never even heard of a company called LYNX before.”

The two of you sighed, and sat there for a few moments, thinking, while Robin murmured the phrase over and over. Some people came in and got ice cream, and when the shop was empty yet again, she sat back down, except instead of focusing on the code, she looked down at your gloves.

“When did you know you could see the future?” she asked abruptly in a low whisper.

You looked around, making sure no one was listening before answering.

“My whole life, actually.”

“Wait, you could see the future your entire life? Like, even as a kid?”

“Yup.”

“So, you were born with it?”

“No,” you said vaguely and when she gave you a look like she wanted to know more, you went on, “It’s a long, fucked up, and complicated story, which I’ll tell you one day, when we’re not surrounded by so many people, especially potential Russian spies.”

She pointed at you. “I’m holding you to that. Apparently there’s a lot of weird shit going on in Hawkins and I am out of the loop.”

You chuckled, “Too much. And hey while we’re at it, maybe you can tell me about Tammy Thompson and any other potential girl crushes.”

“Oh, please. As if that part of my life is in the least bit as exciting as your powers. My love life or lack thereof is a disaster.”

“I mean if it was a secret for so long then it seems to me like it’s a pretty big deal.” You cast her a sidelong glance and she smiled.

She took a sip of her drink. “Thanks for not telling the guys, by the way.”

You shrugged, “No problem. I figured you should get to choose who and when to tell. Under non-psychic circumstances at least.”

It’s how you’d want your secret about your abilities treated.

“You know, I’m kinda glad you know, though. One less person to have to hide it from, or explain myself to. It’s freeing.”

You couldn’t help but agree. Robin’s secret was different from yours, but you knew what it was like to have to hide parts of yourself or lie in order to be taken seriously. When you were around people who knew you and your past, people who accepted you, it was freeing. 

It made you wonder if you were the first person that knew Robin’s secret.

“Oh, I get that.”

A knock coming from beyond the window made you jump, and stopped the rest of your conversation. Robin snapped into action and proceeded to open the window and take off her headphones as another knock came. 

You sneakily peered through with a perplexed gaze and watched as she opened the door leading to the hallway. Robin’s body covered most of what was on the other side, but your heart stopped when you caught a glimpse of who was on there when she took the box from him and put it down on the floor.

A delivery man, with the word LYNX in red, stamped on his uniform.

“Holy shit,” you whispered.

You couldn’t see Robin’s face from where you were, but you could only imagine she had noticed it too.

She signed the paper he gave her, and they exchanged goodbyes.

“Have a nice day.”

“Yeah, you too.” You could hear the hesitance in her tone.

When the man disappeared back into the hallway, you scrambled through the window to get to Robin, all while breathlessly saying,

“Robin, did you see?”

“Yeah, yeah I did.”

You both ran out into the hallway, basically crashing into each other, and watched the man walk back down the hallway. On the back of his uniform was a symbol of a silver cat in a circle. At that point, it was obvious.

“Silver cat,” you uttered.

“Silver cat,” Robin repeated with a smirk on her face.

You had the next piece of the puzzle. You knew wherever the transmission was coming from, it was Starcourt. And now? You knew who the silver cat was.

Robin’s mind was basically made for solving puzzles, so her mind was already working ahead of yours. In fact, she knew the entirety of the code more than you did.

“Come on!”

She took your hand and pulled you back through the door, past the backroom, past the front register, past the boys who were making their way back, past even the threshold of Scoops, all the way until you were both in the middle of Starcourt.

When she got up on an empty ledge, you stared at her wide eyed. 

“What are you doing?”

“Get up here!” she motioned for you to join her. Without hesitation you did, to which she brought the notebook to you and explained her idea.

“All of these codewords have to do with something in this mall. The code is Starcourt, Y/N. If we just look we’ll find it.”

You still weren’t sure where she was going with this, but you started looking around, trying to make connections as you huddled over the notepad.

She repeated, “A trip to China sounds nice,” her gaze scanning the entire area, until she pointed to the Chinese restaurant you had passed by many times before. Imperial Panda.

That was when it clicked for you, and you saw what she saw.

_Oh, the code_ **is** _Starcourt._

The next line was, “If you tread lightly.”

You peeled your eyes for any connections, until you found a shoe store on the second level. With a gasp you pointed at it and Robin grinned widely.

“Yes!” She looked at the next line and closed her eyes, thinking hard. “‘When blue meets yellow in the west’.”

You looked around, your eyes tracking every blue and yellow thing. But you had to think west, what was in the west?

“Look,” Robin said, who was looking up.

You followed her line of sight to a large clock with blue and yellow hands.

“Oh my god.”

“When blue meets yellow in the west.”

“Robin, Nina,” Steve came up to you both with Dustin in tow. He looked at the two of you like you were crazy. “What are you doing?”

“We cracked it,” Robin stated gleefully.

“Cracked what?”

You jumped down from the ledge and grinned. “We cracked the code. Well, it was mostly Robin, but we got it.”

***

Day quickly turned to night, but instead of leaving Starcourt like you normally would have, all four of you stayed and took to the roof to spy on all of the incoming deliveries coming in by LYNX. Unlucky for all of you, it started pelting rain on top of you, and even the rain jackets you had on could barely keep you from getting wet. 

Your hair was dripping against your face, and you were shivering so much, you had to keep your teeth from chattering. The gloves were soaked through and pointless at this rate.

You were all crouched against the ledge overlooking the delivery entrance where two guards flanked a set of double doors, and two men in yellow raincoats wheeled in boxes. Robin, you, Steve, and Dustin were all in a line next to each other. Dustin was looking through his binoculars to get a better close up look. 

“Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes,” Robin instructed him.

“They’re with that whistling guy, 10 o’clock,” he pointed slightly left, to a man who was dollying a stack of boxes as he whistled.

You narrowed your eyes to get a better look, but had to swipe away at the rain that kept getting into your eyes.

“What do you think is in there?” Steve asked.

“Guns, bombs?”

“Chemical weapons?” you chimed in.

“Whatever it is,” Dustin said, “They’re armed to the teeth.”

“Greaat,” Steve uttered sarcastically, wiping away water from his eyes. “That’s great.”

You bit your lip anxiously. “If they have guns then they must be protecting something pretty messed up.” 

Up ahead, there was a beep as a guard scanned a keycard, and the grey double doors swung open automatically. From this distance you couldn’t see what was inside, even if you did try leaning over.

“Hey, what’s in there?” Robin asked.

“It’s just more boxes.”

Steve reached for the binoculars and tried taking them from Dustin’s hands to see better, but the kid wouldn’t let him. They both fought and tugged back and forth at them, until the binoculars hit the ledge, making a loud clang. It made the guards jump to action and lift their guns. All four of you moved in a flash and slid down behind the ledge so you were out of sight, on your backs.

Your heart was hammering against your ribs with how scared shitless you were and the shaking from the cold only worsened by the fear. Your hand reached for Steve’s instinctively, and to your surprise, Robin reached for yours. All four of you layed there, as silently as you could as the rain came down like bullets, squeezing each other’s hands for dear life.

You all exchanged a glance, and Robin quickly retracted her hand from yours, but you kept holding tight to Steve’s. A Russian gave some kind of order from below, and the four of you took that as you cue to go. So, as low and as quickly as the rain let you, you all scampered towards the way you came and headed back inside the mall.

When you were down the stairs and back in the hallway you walked through, safe and sound, you breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Holy shit.”

“Well, I think we found your Russians,” Robin commented.

“Yeah and they almost killed us,” your angry gaze directed at Steve.

“Hey, sorry, alright? I wanted to get a better look, but Henderson here didn’t want to let go of the binoculars,” he said defensively. 

“Hey, lookout was my job, Harrington.”

“Okay, can you kids stop fighting, please?” Robin sniped.

Yeah, you found the Russians, and you were somewhere between terrified and excited. You had dealt with man-eating alien dogs, but people with guns? That gave you flashbacks to a time when you were an experiment in a lab. Dr. Brenner always did like precautions. Somehow they were just as scary as aliens, but in their own way.

The funny thing was, with the whole Billy ordeal, aliens weren’t too far away either.


	5. "Oh Shit"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you find a way to get into the secret room, only to find that it wasn't just a room.

You spent that night at Steve’s place. The two of you got rid of your wet clothes and showered under warm water to get rid of the rain and dirt from the roof. It felt nice to have some time to yourselves amidst all of this, time to feel each other.

While you were laying on his bed, you told him about what happened with El and Max, and how something weird is going on with Billy Hargrove.

“Billy Hargrove? That asshole again?” he whispered sharply.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Are you sure something weird’s happening with him and it’s not just him being on his usual bullshit?”

“You know, Max thought so too, but all of the evidence points to something crazy going on. Steve, I think the gate is opened again, and that the Mind Flayer is back.”

His eyes widened, “But…wouldn’t there be demodogs if it was? How come we haven’t seen any of those around again?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he saw it didn’t work out for him last time, so he’s sending something else.”

He shook his head, confused, “Something else? Something else like what?”

You shrugged, “Billy, a weird monster I keep seeing in my visions, maybe something else too. Who knows?”

“I’m surprised you’re not jumping at the chance to investigate this? Why are we looking for Russians and not this?”

“That’s the thing….I think the Russians have something to do with this, and we’re supposed to keep looking into it. Otherwise I wouldn’t have visions about it, right?”

He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. Needless to say, he looked overwhelmed.

“So much shit is supposed to happen and we can’t do anything about it. How do you deal with this shit?” he asked. You looked at him endearingly and put a hand on his shoulder.

“If there’s anything I’ve learned from being able to see the future, it’s that it’s not possible to spread myself thin, but what I can do is spread the message. Hopper knows some stuff, El and Max know, you and Dustin. All we can do is make the right decision when the time comes.”

He put his hand over yours and gripped it affectionately. You could see in his eyes he was mulling everything over, probably even feeling sympathy for you. Suddenly, his brown eyes got serious.

Finally he said, “If Billy Hargrove lays a hand on you, I’m gonna kill him.”

You knew that he was referring to the vision in your journal, where Billy’s hand is around your throat. The last time you had a vision like that, it was with El and not you, so you weren’t sure exactly what that meant or if they were separate instances. The context was yet to be determined, but you knew that didn’t matter to Steve.

You couldn’t blame him. The last time Billy was kicking Steve’s ass, you went in to save him with your bare hands. Now, more than ever, he would do the same for you.

Still, you tried steering him away from getting himself hurt. He didn’t have the best rep when it came to fights.

“Steve-”

“I mean it, I’ll take the guy down however I have to. I’ve done it before.”

“With my help,” you added.

“Baby, you know I can kick his ass and I will.”

“Okay, okay,” you shushed him to calm him down and reassured him, “Just remember that whatever the visions say, we can change it. Maybe it won’t happen and you won’t have to worry.”

He looked unconvinced. “With a piece of shit like Billy Hargrove, it’s hard not to.”

“I know,” you caressed his cheek and gave him a soft kiss. He pulled you closer against his chest and you buried your face into his neck. 

You took in his scent, his warmth, and before you knew it, your eyes grew heavy, and you slowly drifted off to sleep.

***

The next morning, you were ready to jump back into action.

Being that your clothes were washed and dried, thanks to Steve’s washer and dryer, you were able to reuse them for the day. However, you still took advantage of his closet and sifted through them for a new shirt to borrow. 

“It’s not like they’re getting worn with you in that sailor outfit,” you said when he made a comment about it, and he narrowed his eyes.

You settled on a button up with multi-colored vertical stripes and tucked it into your dark jeans. You even borrowed one of his brown belts to throw around your waist, too.

And just when you thought that you were all set to go and there’d be no time wasted, you ran into a problem. Just as you were heading down the stairs and to the door, you heard a female voice call out your name.

“Y/N, is that you?”

Both you and Steve stopped in your tracks, and you shot him a dreaded gaze. He squeezed his eyes shut and mouthed the word, “Shit.” You both had forgotten to check if his parents were home. Now you were going to have to talk to his mom, which was the last thing you wanted.

You both turned around and faced Mrs. Harrington, who was smiling and holding a mimosa in her hand. She had dark hair like Steve that was curled perfectly.

“Hi, Mrs. Harrington!” you greeted her with your biggest smile.

She hugged you briefly and said, “I thought I saw your car on the street. How are you doing? How are things at The Gap?”

“Good, they’re going great.”

You said that out loud, but then you thought about the fact that you basically missed the day before and called in sick earlier today.

“That’s good, that’s good. Have you gotten a chance to see my boy Steve at work? Is he working hard like he promised?”

She shot Steve a questioning gaze.

“Mom, please….”

You hummed, “Yeah, he always is.”

“That’s good! So, Y/N, any big plans after this summer ends? Have you figured out what you’re going to be doing after The Gap?”

With a knot in your chest you uttered, “Ummmm….not exactly, but I’m working on it. Figuring myself out, you know.”

“Well as my husband says, ‘No time to waste’. You’ll figure it out soon enough I’m sure.”

That line made your blood start to boil, but you did your best to match her passive aggression and remained as calm as you could. Steve, sensing this, put his hand on your shoulder.

“Alright, well, it was nice seeing you mom, but we have to go to work.”

She jumped at that, “Oh right, of course! I don’t want to keep you two.”

You bid your farewells and Steve quickly ushered you out of the house and into his car. On the way to Starcourt, you were silent. You could tell it made Steve uneasy to see you like that, so he ranted for you for while as you had heard him do so about his parents on multiple occasions. But then he tried his best to make you feel better by playing music and talking about something else, reassuring you every now and then that what his parents said was bullshit.

He was right, but you couldn’t help that feeling deep in your gut that made you feel just a tiny bit inadequate. Being reminded of things you already stressed about, on top of the other things you were stressed about, sucked, to say the least. You just had to remind yourself that you were trying to save the world, literally, and not many people could say that.

It wasn’t your fault you couldn’t put that on a damn resume.

***

When you finally got back to Starcourt, it was back to business. You were supposed to be at work, but you called in sick from Steve’s place to give yourself the day off. Sure, you’d still be in the same mall, which is why you’d stick to Scoops and try your best to avoid your boss at all times. After all, there were far more important things for you to focus on, and you were sure they wouldn’t miss you for a day.

You sat on the counter in the backroom of Scoops Ahoy with the rest of the gang, while Steve and Robin sat at the small table. Dustin had just gotten back from his lookout on the roof and was relaying everything that he saw.

“That keycard opens the door, but unfortunately the Russian with this keycard also has a massive gun. Whatever’s in this room, whatever’s in those boxes, they really don’t want anybody finding it.”

“But there’s gotta be a way in,” Robin implored.

Steve was busy playing with his hat when he leaned his elbows forward on the table and said, “Well, you know, I could just take him out.”

You widened your eyes at him. “Take who out?”

“The Russian guard.”

You snorted, “Are you serious?”

“Yeah!” He was dead serious.

Robin leaned back and nodded slowly in disbelief. You, on the other hand, narrowed your eyes at him as he kept going with such blatant nonchalance.

“What? I sneak up on him, I knock him out, and I take his keycard. It’s easy.”

“Did you not hear the part about the massive gun?” Dustin asked.

Steve looked to his curly haired friend with all seriousness. “Yes, Dustin, I did. And that’s why I would be sneaking.”

Robin shook her head, but said nothing, no doubt out of amusement and curiosity. It was times like these where Steve’s confidence went far beyond reach to places nobody could go, not even him.

You rested your forehead against your fingers. “Baby…”

“What?”

Dustin kept going, “Well, please, tell me this, and be honest, have you ever actually…won a fight?”

“Uh, yeah, last year? Billy Hargrove, remember?” He said, gesturing to you to back him up.

“You fought Billy Hargrove?” Robin uttered in shock.

“Yes, long story,” you mentioned before going, “Baby we literally talked about this, I was there. It was both of us.”

“Emphasis on both!” he argued.

Dustin lifted a finger and added, “I was there too and as far as I remember, Nina won that one, and beautifully may I add. Also, Jonathan. You lost that one too.”

Robin looked thoroughly confused about the mention of you winning a fight, but was too afraid to ask.

“Listen, that doesn’t count,” Steve replied to Dustin bringing up Jonathan.

“Why wouldn’t it count? Because it looks like he beat the shit out of you.”

The boys continued to ramble on about Steve’s past fights and losses, while you pinched the bridge of your nose. Meanwhile, amongst the fray, Robin was busy noticing something nobody had caught.

It wasn’t until she said, “That just might work,” that you looked up at her.

She was scrambling up from her seat, on her way somewhere, until you stopped her.

“What’s up?”

With a big smile on her face she pointed up, towards a vent that was high on the wall.

“I’ve got an idea.”

Your eyebrows raised as you connected the dots and saw where she was getting at. If you couldn’t get into the secret room from the double doors, then maybe there was another way, and that other way could be through the air vents.

But how could you possibly know which way those vents led? And would any of you even fit through there in the first place? If there was anyone that knew the answers, it was Robin.

Her mind was racing a million miles a minute, just like it did when she started cracking the code, and there was no stopping her. She grabbed her bag, took the money from the tip jar and was jogging out of the shop when Steve protested about his half.

“Where are you going?” he asked in annoyance.

“To find us a way into that room, a safe way!” She motioned to you. “Nina, you’re in charge.”

“She doesn’t even work here!” Steve whined.

You smirked, very pleased with that, and he shook his head at you.

“Sling ice cream, behave, and don’t get beat up! I’ll be back in a jiff!”

***

She came back some time later with a stack of blueprints of Starcourt mall. You were completely awestruck at her brilliance, and the fact that they even sold these at all.

“It is fascinating what 20 bucks will get you at the County Recorder’s Office. Starcourt Mall. The complete blueprints.”

She laid them out flat on the table.

“Holy shit,” you whispered.

“Not bad,” Dustin grinned.

She showed you all where you were on the map, and where the double doors were, which is where you needed to get to. It was obvious that there was no way in, Steve pointed that out. But that was when Robin got rid of the surface layer, and revealed another blueprint underneath, which gave you a different view of the mall. The inner workings.

“Air ducts!” you smiled brightly.

“Exactly.” She went over to the whiteboard to retrieve a marker and all the while she kept talking and explaining. “Turns out, this secret room needs air like any old room. And these air ducts,” she circled in red where Scoops was, and traced a path all the way to where the secret room was, “Lead all the way here.”

You all looked up at the air vent she had pointed to earlier.

 _So there_ was _a way through…_

With the help of a ladder and a screwdriver, Steve got up there and took the grate off the vent. You and Robin watched as he debated with Dustin on whether or not he would fit through there. Out of all of you, Dustin was the smallest, and according to him, his lack of collarbones would help to squeeze in just right.

Dustin proceeded to get in, while Robin was left to wonder about what Dustin has so casually mentioned.

“Uhh, excuse me?”

“He’s got some kind of disease,” you said.

Steve tried remembering what it was, “Chry…Chrydo, umm…Something. Yeah, I don’t know.”

“Cleidocranial Dysplasia,” you corrected him.

“Yeah, yeah. He’s missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo.”

“You mean, Gumby,” Robin corrected him.

“I’m pretty sure it’s Gumbo,” Steve said with confidence.

You shook your head, “Steve…no.”

He looked ready to argue, but Dustin asked him to shut up and start pushing him. Robin leaned over to you and whispered,

“Remind me, why are you dating him again?”

You shrugged, “What can I say? I have a thing for idiots.” 

Steve’s personality worked on a scale, and at opposite ends were, “Clueless idiot” and “Protective Babysitter”. The in between was reserved for you, and even then you witnessed a lot of sliding back and forth that made you wonder if he was okay half of the time. Still, you adored him more than words could say.

“Gottcha.”

It turned into a fight between Steve and Dustin of trying to shove him in through the vent, but to no avail. You cringed, fearing that the kid was going to get stuck. You tried telling them to stop, but they could barely hear over the sound of their own voices.

“Guys, I don’t think this is gonna work!”

The bell from the front of the shop rang, making both you and Robin turn around. It was Lucas’ little sister, Erica, and she was asking for service. You had seen her around before, but never officially met. All you knew was that she talked a lot and has an attitude (according to Lucas).

Upon seeing her amidst all of this chaos, an idea occurred to you. She was small, smaller than Dustin, and maybe even small enough to fit through that vent. 

Was it a bad idea to rope someone else into this? Maybe. But did desperate times call for desperate measures? Absolutely. Not to mention, she had been in one of your visions, hadn’t she? Which meant that she was going to be vital to this mission.

You looked to Robin, who furrowed her brow upon seeing your semi devious expression.

“I think I found a solution.”

***

You offered the solution to the boys and when they agreed, you and Robin called Erica into the backroom to talk. The four of you leaned against the counter and watched as she inspected the vent. When she came down, she said she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t that she didn’t think she could fit, or that she was scared, it was that she wanted to know what was in this for her.

So, you all sat in a booth and offered Erica all of the ice cream Scoops possibly could. Steve pushed a sundae in her direction as an offering, but then she pushed it back and said,

“More fudge please.”

Steve stared at it blankly, and you all looked at him, waiting. 

Erica urged him on, “Go on.”

Steve pressed his lips into a thin line before taking the sundae and doing as she said. Meanwhile the rest of you stayed to talk terms with a child.

Robin pulled out the blueprints and showed Erica the red path that would be the route she would take. She asked about the armed guards, then rambled about booby traps. She clearly had an active imagination and a lot of questions. Still you couldn’t help but laugh. That was, until she said this whole plan was basically child endangerment. No matter what you or Robin said, she was having none of it. And you would’ve sassed her back, if Robin and Dustin didn’t tell you to settle down.

What got her to listen was Dustin’s speech about saving America from the Russians, but what reigned her in was a promise to have ice cream for life. She demanded it, and it was up to Robin to keep that promise. At the end of the day, she finally agreed to go into the vent, which meant your plan was back in action.

***

When the sun went down and it was dark outside, the four of you found yourselves on the roof once again, except this time the skies were clear, and with Erica on your side, you were finally going to see what was inside those boxes.

Robin had the radio and was speaking to Erica through it.

“Erica, do you copy?”

“Mhmmm I copy,” Her voice came through the static. “You nerds in position or what?”

You rolled your eyes at the nickname.

“Yeah, we’re in position. It’s all quiet here, so you’ve got the green light.”

“Green light, roger that. Commence Operation Child Endangerment.”

You furrowed your eyebrow in disapproval and added into the radio, “Can we maybe not call it that?”

“See you on the other side, Nerds.”

When the radio went silent, you all exchanged a concerned expression. There were no armed guards and from what you all knew, there was nobody inside. If the blueprint was right and Erica followed it as directed, she would be fine. This would all be fine.

Steve put his arm around you and as time went by, he tapped your shoulder nervously.

After what felt like forever, her voice came through the radio yet again.

“Alright, nerds. I’m there.”

“Do you see anything?” Robin asked.

“Yeah, I see those boring boxes you’re talking about.”

“Any guards?”

“Negative.” 

“Booby traps?”

“If I could see them, they’d be pretty shit traps, wouldn’t they?” she sassed.

You snorted in amusement. She had an attitude, but you appreciated it.

“Thank you for that.”

A moment passed before she said, “In in.”

Steve ran his fingers through his hair and exhaled sharply. “Oh God.” All of you were on edge.

Before you knew it, you heard a metal click, and watched as the grey doors swung open, and Erica walked right out casually. You all regarded her, slack jawed. You were personally on the verge of giggles. 

She pointed to all of you and repeated, “Free ice cream for life!”

The four of you wasted no more time, and immediately made your way down there. Part of you was scared that some Russian would pop out of nowhere, or that you’d trip some kind of alarm system, but when you got to the secret room, there was nothing to be afraid of. As of yet.

All of you huddled around a group of Imperial Panda boxes that were on a table, and Steve instantly started opening it with a knife from Dustin’s backpack. You were on the balls of your feet, waiting in anticipation for something that had taken what felt like forever to get to.

Steve pulled back the cardboard and inside, to everyone’s surprise but yours, was a strange metal cube, with a handle inside a circle. With a look at you, he reached in, twisted the handle, and opened the lid. Cool vapor was released, and all of you leaned over to get a glance at what was within.

There were four more circles with handles, and although you had no idea what they could possibly be, you knew it couldn’t be good.

“That’s definitely not Chinese food,” Steve commented.

He reached in and grabbed one of the handles, but considering that none of you knew the level of danger that this was, he told you all to step back. You, Erica, and Robin did so. Although you were worried that Steve might get hurt. 

“Steve, be careful, please.”

“It’ll be fine, baby.”

Dustin had the same idea, except he refused to leave Steve’s side.

“Step back, seriously,” Steve tried pushing his friend away, but Dustin was adamant.

“No! If you die, I die!”

Steve stared at him for a moment, before shrugging and going, “Okay.”

With that, Steve turned the handle, which made a click, and he pulled out a long tube with green bubbling liquid. You stared at it wide eyed. It looked like something out of a movie. Then again, you were basically living something out of a movie.

“What the hell?” Steve whispered.

“What is that?”

Suddenly the room jostled and everyone froze in place. You were sure that this was just a regular room, weren’t you? It couldn’t have possibly moved. But then again, this belonged to the Russians, maybe it couldn’t be just a regular room.

“Was that just me or did the room move?” Dustin asked.

You shook your head, “Oh it definitely moved.”

Erica looked scared for the first time since seeing her. “Booby traps,” she whispered.

Robin was freaking out too, you could see it in her eyes.

“You know what? Let’s just grab that and go,” she took the green vial from Steve’s hand and put it in Erica’s backpack.

Dustin was busy trying to open the door but it wouldn’t work, and he started bickering with Erica about it, which made your heart start to race. You looked around at the room, analyzing everything, asking questions and remembering visions. As thoughts started to go through your head, you looked at Steve and said,

“Why else would they put the boxes here?”  
“What do you mean?” he shook his head.

“We’ve seen them put the boxes in, but have we seen them take anything out?”

His brown eyes widened a little and you could see Robin got worried too.

“We need to get out of here,” Steve uttered and started pressing the open door button, only for it to not work yet again.

Out of nowhere, a red wall came down over where the grey doors were, startling you all. A moment of silence passed, when all of a sudden, the room started to move downwards at a rapid speed, like a ride from hell. You all screamed and held onto something for dear life so you could steady yourselves. And you were hit with a wave of dejavu. 

_Yup, I had seen this before, hadn’t I?_

You looked up at the walls, and saw a series of lights going up and up and up as the room dropped further down into the earth. 

_It’s an elevator. A fucked up elevator. Figures._

At the same time, you and Steve said, “Oh shit.”


	6. Halfway to Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you and the Scoops Troop are trapped in a elevator and then get into the secret Russian base.

The room continued to drop and the descent felt never ending. All of you were freaking out and screaming your lungs out as you held on to something for dear life. Dustin was cursing and trying to get the elevator to stop by slamming buttons. **  
**

“Shit! Shit!”

Steve screamed from the corner he was in, “We’re going down! We’re going down!”

“Yeah, no shit, Harrington!” Robin shouted.

Dustin kept slamming buttons and screaming bloody murder. All the while Erica joined him and began yelling at him to press the button as if he wasn’t already trying. You were both panicking and getting pissed at the bickering.

“Just press something!” you yelled.

Still, nothing happened, which you deduced that it probably meant that they stopped working once the elevator was on its way down, or that only the Russians knew how to stop it. Either way, you were fucked.

Suddenly the room came to a startling screeching halt, making everybody fall to the ground as well as a number of boxes. You fell to your knees and hissed in pain. Steve groaned as a box landed on his groin. He cried for help and Dustin immediately attended to him.

“Is everyone okay?” Robin asked, which unleashed all of Steve’s anger and frustration.

“Yeah, I’m great, now that I know Russians can’t design elevators!” He ranted, and marched over to buttons once again, all while pushing Dustin to the side. 

“Steve, I think we’ve established that the buttons don’t work!” you said.

He turned to you and snapped, “They’re buttons. They have to do something!”

“Yeah, but obviously, these don’t!”

“They only work if we have a keycard.” Robin motioned to the scanner next to the buttons, just like the one that had been next to the gray doors on the outside.

“A what?” he asked.

“It’s an electronic lock.” She walked over to it. “Same as the loading dock door. If we don’t have a keycard, it won’t operate, meaning-”

“We’re stuck in here,” Dustin finished.

“Yeah.”

You put your fingers to the sides of your temples and sighed. 

“I can’t fucking believe this.”

Erica started going about how, “Just so you nerds are aware, I’m supposed to be spending the night at Tina’s, and Tina always covers for me. But if I’m not home for Uncle Jack’s party tomorrow, and my mom finds out you four are responsible, she’s gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throat.”

That didn’t make Steve feel any better.

“I don’t care about Tina! Or Uncle Jack’s party! Your mom’s not gonna be able to find us if we’re dead in a Russian elevator!”

Erica narrowed her eyes at him but said nothing. Maybe he was getting a bit cranky but he was right. Nothing was going to matter if you died down there.

“Any clues in that journal of yours, Nina?” Robin asked from her place against the wall.

You took out your journal from the cross body bag you had, and flipped through it. You already had an idea that there was nothing in there pertaining to getting out of Russian elevators, but it was better to double check. Of course, your suspicions were confirmed once you scanned every page and found no clues.

You looked up at everyone and shook your head. “Nothing about Russian elevators or buttons controlled by keycards.”

Steve sighed and ran his fingers through his hair in agitation.

Erica furrowed her eyebrows. “What is that journal and why would it say anything about a Russian elevator.”

You looked her dead in the face and said, “I’m psychic and I write my visions in here.”

She snorted, clearly not buying it, “Yeah, right.”

You shrugged and didn’t try to push it, but Robin chimed in and said, “She’s not lying, you know.”

“Russian spies, I can believe. Girl who can see the future? Sounds fake.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Hey,” Dustin suddenly uttered, and pointed to the ceiling, “What if we climbed out?”

You all followed his line of sight and saw what he was pointing at. It was a small hatch leading to the top of the elevator.

With the help of one of the tables, Dustin climbed on up and opened the hatch. Steve went through second, followed by you and your curiosity. Once you were on top of the metal box, held up by large cables, you looked up. And above you was nothing but a black abyss of darkness, leading up. You didn’t know how far below the surface you were, but it was too damn far for any human to climb, let alone five.

You let out a sarcastic laugh. “Right.”

“What was that about climbing?” Steve asked.

You all went back inside and told Robin and Erica about that so-called, “plan”. At that point, the anxiety in the room got worse. Steve was practically pulling his hair out, Robin was hugging herself against the wall, Erica was silent and wide-eyed, and Dustin was busy trying to contact someone through the radio. For them, there was little to no hope, but for you that just wasn’t the case.

Steve couldn’t help but notice your calm demeanor. 

“How are you not freaking out?” 

You shrugged, “I guess because considering everything I know, I have to believe we’re not going to die down here. We’re gonna be fine.”

“Are you sure? Because I don’t feel fine.”

“Yes, Mr. Crankypants, you just need to calm down and breathe. There’s a whole future that hasn’t happened yet and we’re in it. Something’s going to happen, I know it.” You motioned to the room and the buttons. “Someone’s gotta come and retrieve their delivery, right? And they’ll definitely have a keycard.”

Robin nodded, pushing herself from the wall.

“She’s right. This stuff’s gotta be used for something important, and sooner or later they’re gonna need to come back for more.”

“Exactly, thank you,” you grinned at her. “Otherwise why go through the trouble of making this thing, right?”

“So, what, we just wait here until they do?” Steve asked.

You sighed, thinking about the unknown amount of time having to wait for a Russian spy to come in and find you, with no food and no water.

“Yup.”

“Great.”

Although being underground kept you from seeing what time of day it was, your body must have felt that it was still night time. You were growing tired and sleepier as time went on. And now that everyone saw that there was no point to freaking out, it was quieter.

You found a spot against a wall and sat against it. When Steve was done talking to Dustin, he came over and plopped down right next to you. You looked at each other and smiled tiredly, his grumpiness had gone away for now. You spoke in hushed voices.

“You feeling better, little sailor?”

He grimaced a little, “Eh, could be better. At least I’ve got you here with me to make it less shitty.”

“In one of the least romantic places in the universe.”

“I know right? Sorry I couldn’t get us a better venue.”

You giggled at that, for the first time in hours, and laid your head against his shoulder. He took your hand and you slipped off your gloves before intertwining your fingers together. Images flashed of him, but nothing you hadn’t seen before. 

The two of you looked on to where Robin was mindlessly looking at the scanner, and where Erica was asleep in another corner.

“Lucas’ sister is a firecracker isn’t she? Like jeez,” Steve whispered.

“I know right? I kinda think it’s great, but I’m glad she’s not my little sister.”

He chuckled softly, “Right?”

A moment of silence passed, and amidst that silence you found your mind wandering to your family and the other kids. You had told El that if she needed you, she could radio you through Dustin, seeing his failed attempts to contact the party fizzled out any hope you had of that. You hoped that she was fine and that she was with Max, not worrying too much about you. However, you couldn’t say the same for Hopper. 

He could think you were at Steve’s but what would he think when you didn’t come home in the morning? He’d freak out, that’s what, and you’d have a situation on your hands that was similar to what Erica was saying her mom would do.

“Do you think everyone else is okay up there?” you asked softly. “El, Hopper, and the kids I mean.”

He snorted, “Who’s the mother goose now?”

“Shut up.” He sniggered at that.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure they’re fine. They’re probably doing way better than we are right now, at least. Even if something crazy did happen, those kids can take care of themselves. El’s got her powers. Hopper’s a badass police chief. And the rest of those kids are batshit crazy.”

He wasn’t wrong. Those kids had survived a lot with and without you, you just couldn’t help but worry, especially for El. Everything that was happening with Billy Hargrove could’ve gotten worse, but you couldn’t know on account that you were miles under the earth. Hopefully, Steve was right and they were better off than you were at that moment.

Without realizing just how tired you were, your eyes started to grow heavy, and you eventually drifted off to sleep.

***

_A long blue corridor with no end. Hopper and Joyce in the woods, with a man with curly hair and glasses. El, speaking into a radio, “Dustin, Dustin are you there? Nine? Nine, are you there?” Steve, fighting a man in a uniform. Guns being pointed at you. 4th of July. The county fair. El getting attacked and bit by a monster. Billy in the void, “I remember you”. And then you, standing the upside down, with the Mind Flayer towering over you._

Suddenly, you were ripped out, and woke up with a start.

“No!” you blurted out, only to find yourself on the floor of the Russian elevator, next to a still sleeping Steve.

El and the Mind Flayer were nowhere to be found, and you were still underneath Starcourt, and now all sense of calm you had, was replaced with dread. There was also a feeling of a large weight on your brain, one that you hadn’t felt since the gate had been closed the last time. It couldn’t have meant anything good. If anything it meant things were getting worse. 

You were also worried about EL. She could’ve been okay a few hours ago or even right now, but she wasn’t going to be okay for very long, and you had no means of helping her. It made you feel angry and useless.

You looked around at everyone else and confirmed that they were still sleeping. It was awfully quiet in this eerie room and you got filled with the urge to escape. And at first, it seemed like a crazy idea, because if you could escape, you all would’ve by now, but then as your eyes wandered, the small hatch in the ceiling caught your attention.

You nodded once to yourself. That could work.

You grabbed your journal and got up on the table as quietly as possible. You reached up to grab the sides of the hole, but you must have made some noise, because to your dismay, Robin was now awake.

“What are you doing?” she whispered loud enough for you to hear.

You peered down at her and she was frowning in confusion. You shrugged, “Getting some fresh air, or a version of it.”

“Ah.”

“Wanna come?”

She looked on thoughtfully, before shrugging and going, “Sure.”

Robin followed through the hatch right after you, and the both of you sat cross legged in the least uncomfortable parts of the metallic box. Without saying anything, you opened up your journal and documented everything you could remember from this last batch of visions. 

She watched you pensively and asked, “Did you have more visions? Is that why you needed fresh air?”

You nodded slowly. “Yeah. This last one wasn’t particularly great. Not that any of them are ever good.”

First you saw Hopper crying and now El was in danger. You had every right to be anxious about these in particular considering they were your family.

“What did you see?”

“El. I think she’s in danger and I can’t do anything to help her from down here.”

“How is she in danger?”

You opened your mouth to tell her, but then hesitated. You weren’t sure how good of an idea it was to spew out everything about the upside down, the mind flayer, and everything else they entail when Russian spies were an already big enough issue to worry about.

Then again, you had hours to kill and it wasn’t like she wasn’t going to find out soon enough.

“Would you believe me if I said it was a giant alien monster?”

She snorted a laugh. “Yeah, right.”

“I’m serious. Like you said, there’s a lot of shady stuff happening in Hawkins that you don’t know about. Russian spies? That’s the new stuff.”

She raised her eyebrows, but you couldn’t tell if it was because she was genuinely shocked or because she thought you were crazy.

As if reading your mind she said, “I want to think you’re crazy, but the fact that you’ve been right about everything else tells me I should believe you.”

“You should.”

“And are you finally going to fill me in or are you going to leave me on another cliffhanger?”

You looked down at the room below and then up at the cavernous hole you were in, then back at her. You had no excuse to leave her hanging and if you were honest, you needed the distraction. Robin was proving to be a cool person to have around and you could use the time to get to know each other while everyone was asleep. You owed her as much.

You grinned, “I mean we’re stuck here for god knows how long. Why not kill the time with some story time?”

You started off by telling her about what Dustin would call, your “superhero origin story”, which was how you got your abilities while being experimented on at the lab. You showed her the tattoo on your arm with the number “009”, which she regarded with a mixture of awe and horror (the general reaction). You even told her about El, her powers, and how you found her and Hopper after having escaped the lab a year prior.

Then it all moved on to your first wave of strange, alien filled visions, which led you to meeting Steve, Dustin, and the rest of the kids.You told her about the Mind Flayer, the demodogs, Billy Hargrove, and even how you all closed the gate. You even unbuttoned the top buttons of your shirt and showed her the scars from the demodogs that Steve had saved you from. Whenever you mentioned Steve killing things with his bat, she couldn’t believe it considering she only ever knew him in a Scoops Ahoy uniform. 

Finally, you told her about the start of these recent visions and the accident you got into because of it. How Hopper told you to keep a journal, why you wear the gloves, up until the point of telling her you were clairvoyant. Also, how you think the aliens from the upside down are back, and how it’s all connected to the Russians.

It felt like hours had passed when you were done, but realistically it had probably only been over an hour. Robin was completely dumbstruck by everything, which was understandable considering it was an influx of years worth of information that sounded like something out of a sci-fi story, but was actually happening in real life.

“So…the Russians…whatever they’re working on, whatever top secret operation they’re doing under Starcourt…it has something to do with all of this? The aliens? The…the gate?” she stuttered once she had a chance to process and ask questions.

You nodded, “Yeah, yeah I think so. It can’t be a coincidence, right? Right after I get these visions, we’re sucked into Russian conspiracy, and then El finds out that something’s wrong with Billy? I mean I wouldn’t have visions about it if it wasn’t all connected somehow.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” she agreed, which felt nice, and then continued,“But what do you think they’re doing down here?”

You shrugged, “Whatever it is, it’s messing with the gate or the upside down somehow. That green fluid we found has something to do with it.”

She leaned all the way back until she was flat against the roof and heaved a heavy sigh.

“This is insane.”

“I know.”

“We need to get out of here.”

“I know,” you repeated with more emphasis.

“I can’t believe you kicked Billy Hargrove’s ass.”

“I had to save Steve! And he deserved it.”

“Now I know why Dustin said you won that one.”

“It’s because it’s true.”

You both laughed.

“Hey, what are you guys doing up here?” Steve’s voice made you both look towards the hatch, where half of his body was sticking out from.

“Speak of the devil. We’re just passing the time,” you said.

“She just told me your whole life story,” Robin piped up.

Steve raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“I just told her everything about my life and about the upside down.”

“What?” he reiterated, but more flabbergasted now. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, she was bound to find out anyway.”

He ran his fingers through his hair and shrugged vaguely. “Well I guess that saves us from having to explain anything. Welcome to the club, Robin.”

She sat up and smiled, “Thank you. I am excited yet terrified to be a part of it.”

“Yup, that’s the general feeling.”

You, Steve, and Robin spent the next few hours talking, and then trying to figure out a way to open the door. Of course, to no avail. After a total of what you counted to be 8 hours, you were all starting to lose it a little. The kids were awake and Steve was cranky again. Dustin was trying to contact the party again, Erica was trying to break the container with the green fluid to drink it, all while Steve was peeing off the roof of the elevator. 

It was safe to say, you and Robin were at your wit’s end. At least, that was, until you heard a sound coming from the other side of the door. 

You and Robin pressed your ears against the wall and heard what sounded like a motor. Clearly, it was the Russians coming to pick up their delivery. But you couldn’t get caught and potentially get killed, so you all hastily climbed through the hatch and hid on the roof of the elevator while two Russian guys in blue uniform picked up boxes and put them on the cart they came in.

It was your one chance to get out of the elevator, but there were five of you and there was no way you’d all get through before the door closed back up. But one look at Erica holding the vial of green liquid and Steve had a brilliant idea.

Once the Russians got in their car and left, and the door began to close, he took the vial, jumped out of the hatch, and placed it vertically underneath the door to stop it with just enough space above the floor to let you all through. One by one you all anxiously slid underneath as the vial started to crack, until Steve was the last one and the glass completely broke, unleashing what was within. To your horror, the green stuff inside started eating away at the floor, showing you all that it was an acid this whole time.

“Jesus Christ,” Steve whispered sharply as you all gathered around the now smoking hole in the floor.

You looked at Erica and asked, “You still wanna drink that?”

She looked unamused to say the least.

“Holy Mother of God.”

You all turned around to look at what Dustin was exclaiming about. And just like in your visions, a large blue never ending tunnel stood before you. There were no other ways in or out.

“We’re gonna have to run it if we want to get anywhere fast enough,” you said.

“Well, I hope you guys are in good shape,” Steve stepped forward and patted Dustin on the chest. “Looking at you, roast beef.”

He started walking forward, and you slowly followed after, motioning the rest of them to come along.

You started off trying to jog it, but then eventually got tired and walked at a rapid pace. You had no way to gauge how much progress you were making the entire time. The growing migraine in your skull didn’t make things easier. Luckily there were five of you and there was plenty to talk about to pass the time. 

For example, the engineering of the place, why it was built, and what the green stuff was used for.

“Do you think they built this whole mall just so they could transport that green poison?” Steve asked.

“I seriously doubt it’s something as boring as poison,” Dustin contended. “It’s gotta be much more valuable like promethium or something.”

“What the hell is promethium?”

“It’s what Victor Stone’s dad used to make Cyborg’s bionic and cybernetic components,” Robin answered.

You had heard about Cyborg before, it was in some of the comics Dustin had talked to you about and urged you to read, but you never got around to.

“You’re talking about something out of a comic book?” you inquired in disbelief.

“It’s not just out of a comic book, it’s real!”

Erica groaned, “You’re all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill.”

“No, no, no. Don’t lump me in with them. I’m not a nerd all right?” Steve added defensively.

You snorted. After all this time, he still refused to believe he wasn’t anything close to a dork.

“What?” he asked when he heard you.

“You might not be as nerdy as them, but you’re halfway there, honey.”

“Hey, am not!”

“Why so sensitive, Harrington?” Robin teased.

Dustin kept talking about how the Promethium could be used to power something, like a nuclear weapon underneath Hawkins. It lined up with the big laser you saw in your premonitions, so that didn’t surprise you, although it didn’t make you any less uneasy. At this point it was also clear that this was all connected to the upside down somehow.

Suddenly, the walkie talkie in Erica’s backpack started going off, and the familiar Russian voice started to come through. You all kneeled down on the ground to listen to it. Robin put it close to her ear and started speaking over it in the Russian she knew.

“It’s the code,” she said with a smirk.

Dustin’s face lit up. “Wherever that broadcast is coming from-”

“It’s close. And if there’s one thing we know about that signal…”

“It can reach the surface.”

You all looked up and then at each other.

“Let’s go.”

***

At a certain point, you finally reached a fork in the tunnel where it branched off to the left, but just up ahead, you could hear the motorized sound of the cart coming back your way, as well as some voices. So, the five of you scrambled out of the main tunnel and squeezed behind what looked like electrical boxes.

You all held your breath as the cart passed by and a pair of Russians walked by to go into the main tunnel. Your own heart was hammering against your chest and you were hoping that they couldn’t somehow hear it. 

When it was all quiet again, Steve peeked his head out and signaled that the coast was clear. You all followed closely behind as he led you further inside.

“Okay, that was close,” you gasped.

“Too close,” Dustin added.

“Relax,” he chided arrogantly, “Alright? Relax. Nobody saw…”

When you all turned the corner he stopped and his words trailed off as well as his confidence. All of your jaws dropped at the sight before you, which was a two story hub filled with Russians dressed in different uniforms, all going to different places on their feet and on carts. Some of them had guns, others had lab coats, and there were others who looked like they were wearing space suits.

One of them turned his gaze in your directions and you all cursed, and hid behind an unused cart to hide from view.

“Jesus!” Steve hissed.

“Red Dawn,” Dustin said.

You nodded. You had seen that movie before when it came out the year prior. It was about Russians invading the United States, which started World War 3. Except this was more discreet and underground, clearly.

Erica looked at Steve with wide eyes and implored, “I saw it. First floor, northwest.”

“Saw what?”

“The comms room!”

“How the hell…?” you whispered.

You didn’t know how she saw it, but she must have had an eye for it. How did she know to even look for one? How did she know what one looked like?

“You saw the comms room?”

“Correct.”

“Are you sure?” Dustin asked.

“Positive. The door was open for a second, and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there.”

“That could be a hundred different things.”

Robin looked to you and Steve and said, “I’ll take those odds.”

You nodded. It was better than nothing and staying hidden trying to figure out your next move. Erica talked a lot, but she was smart and her mind went to a lot of places you wouldn’t think of. It helped in these situations.

“What else are we gonna do?” you shrugged at Steve.

He shook his head at both of you and sighed.

“Fine.”

He looked over the side of the cart and you all carefully peered over his shoulder. He was no doubt staking everything out, planning out the best path and timing. When he turned back around, he ordered everyone in a calm and stern manner.

“All right. We’re gonna move fast, we’re gonna stay low. Okay?”

You all nodded, “Okay.”

You all got up to a crouch and followed Steve’s lead. He reached back to you, it was second nature at this point in these situations, and you took his hand. Scared that someone might get left behind, you reach back to Robin, who took your hand, and then took Erica’s hand. Although she didn’t want to take Dustin’s hand, he took hers anyway, thus creating a ridiculous chain of hand holding.

Steve stopped momentarily behind some cubes, then again behind an unused car. He motioned for you guys to move it along, only to notice you all holding hands. He motioned dramatically in confusion.

“What is this, kindergarten?” he whispered sharply.

“Nobody gets left behind,” Dustin argued.

You shushed both of them and pointed to the comms room door, where a man in a lab coat was coming out of. The door had a scanner next to it, which meant if you wanted to get in, this was your chance.

Once the Russian was out of sight, you quickly rushed to the door just in time for Steve to stop it from closing with his hand. He went inside and held it open as you all quietly and quickly dashed through. 

All the while you clenched your teeth and tried to fight the migraine that was getting worse as time went on. That weight on your skull was starting to feel a lot like last year, but you had to keep moving, and hoping that you didn’t pass out in a secret Russian base.

Thinking that you were safe from the hub of Russians, you almost breathed a sigh of relief, until you turned towards the center of the room and froze at the sight of another lone uniformed man sitting at the control center.

At the sound of the door closing, the man swiveled in his chair, and at the sight of you all, he jumped out of his seat and took off his headphones. You stared at each other, wide eyed. In fact, he looked just as shocked as you. But then he moved to reach for the gun at his hip and in that fraction of a second, you moved to stop him, Steve put his arm in front of you to stop you, and then Robin reached out her hand and stopped the man by speaking in Russian.

She was spewing out words you had heard before, the ones from the code, the only Russian she knew. The man responded to her in something else entirely, clearly perplexed by the random phrases she was saying. She motioned to herself, then made a shape like a tail. He still didn’t understand, and neither did any of you, even when she desperately tried to say something coherent.

Not convinced he reached for his gun again, but instead of you trying to do anything, this time, Steve screamed before running full speed at the Russian, and knocking him down. You gasped, and watched in shock as the Russian pushed Steve off of him, and threw a punch, only for Steve to dodge it completely. The Russian grabbed Steve by the collar and shoved him against the controls and was about to grab him again from behind, when Steve elbowed him in the stomach, grabbed the phone on the dashboard and hit the guy in the face, knocking him out cold.

You would’ve joined in, you would’ve helped him not get his ass kicked, had he not done such a beautiful job at doing so himself. Not to mention, you were so awestruck, so impressed, so unexpectedly turned on by all of this that you almost forgot that this was a life threatening situation. For a second you wished there was nobody else in the room.

He breathed heavily and pushed his hair back as he stared down at the now unconscious Russian.

“Dude!” Dustin exclaimed. “You did it! You won a fight!”

You all smiled proudly while Erica still looked freaked out. Steve smiled and chuckled softly, very proud himself as well. Dustin grabbed the keycard and bickered with Erica once again, while you rushed over to Steve and spoke to him in hushed whispers.

“Good job, Harrington. Where did that come from?”

He shrugged humbly. “Told you I could take down a Russian guard.”

“Sorry I ever doubted you,” you admitted. “That was hot. Like, incredibly hot.”

He smirked coyly, “You think so?”

“Yeah,” you murmured lowly.

Forgetting everyone else, he started whispering other things as he leaned in close enough to kiss you, but you were sorely interrupted by Robin.

“Hey, lovebirds! We’re in a Russian base remember? Save it for later!” she yelled. “There’s something up here.”

You and Steve came back to reality and Dustin and Erica stopped their bickering to see what Robin was referring to. She was standing at the bottom of some stairs on the left side of the room. 

She led the way and you all followed her up the steps, through another door that led to a room with long glass windows. And through those windows you could see a massive control room that overlooked something terrible that you had seen in your visions recently and months prior to this.

A bunch of people in hazmat suits, working on a large machine, that was firing a big blue laser into a scar in a fleshy wall. A wall that was the gate that opened to the upside down. You could hear it as your head pounded, the shrieking of the Mind Flayer and what lied within.

Steve and Dustin looked at each other and in acknowledgement said, “The gate.”

They looked to you too, but you could feel yourself struggling to breathe, and your vision start to blur. Being this close to the gate with that thing firing into it, it was triggering something in your brain that was too much for your body to handle.

“Nina?” Dustin and Steve said your name worriedly, and now Robin and Erica were looking at you too.

“What’s wrong?”

The pain got worse, making you put your hands on the sides of your head. You could feel Steve’s hands on your waist as you said, “My head’s killing me.”

Your eyes rolled to the back of your head and the last thing you remembered before you were sent under was the sound of everyone crying out your name as you started to collapse into Steve’s arms.


	7. "Damsels in Distress"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you, Steve, and Robin get captured by the Russians, while Dustin and Erica figure out a way to save you.

_You were standing in the middle of the upside down, a dark version of Hawkins where everything was covered in vines and white pieces of ash floated in the air. The Mindflayer stood above you and you looked at it in terror._

_“Steve!” you called out. “Steve!”_

_Every vision that you’ve ever had replayed over and over in your head, overlapping over each other until it all sounded like a haunting cluster of voices. Numbers repeated, Dustin and Erica standing in a room with green vials, Steve called out your name, Hopper cried, you pulled Steve away from someone._

Suddenly other voices stood out from the fray. Real, urgent voices that were in the present.

“This is bad, this is really bad. Like end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it bad.”

“We have to get out of here.”

“No, shit. But it’s gonna be hard with her like this.”

“Nina please wake up.”

You could feel yourself being carried by the two bodies that were at your sides. You slowly opened your eyes to see that you were all heading back down the stairs to the comms room. You looked upwards at your helpers, Robin and Steve, and she noticed.

“Oh good, she’s awake.”

They carefully set you down on one of the chairs in front of the controls, allowing you to come to. Your head was pounding, but the dizziness was starting to slowly go away. Steve crouched at your feet and took your hand. 

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, that was weird.”

“No shit, baby. You had me worried there.”

“I think it’s the gate. I’ve never been this close to it before.”

“Uhh, Steve?” Erica piped up. “Where’s your Russian friend?”

Steve frowned at that. You all looked around the room and found that the place where Steve had left the unconscious man in uniform, was empty. He was gone, which could only mean one thing. He was awake and signaling his buddies.

On cue, an alarm started blaring and a red light flashed in unison, alerting the whole base about the intruders, you. Steve scrambled up from the ground and ran to the door. He opened it and poked his head out, but it was the very thing that got him noticed by the other Russians. He quickly shut the door and looked at you all with eyes the size of dinner plates.

“Shit. Go, go, go!”

You bolted off the chair, but were stopped by your own swaying. Robin helped you by throwing your arm over her shoulder, and you all ran up the stairs, through the door, and then directly in through another one on the right. It led you guys right into the control room where the scientists with lab coats were monitoring the laser.

You froze, but only for a second before following Dustin, who dashed for the stairs leading down. The armed Russians followed closely behind with their shouting and their guns. You reached a point at the bottom where you were side by side with the laser, and Dustin was screaming as he freaked out. Being that close made you feel like you could disintegrate or burn alive in seconds.

“Guards!” Erica screamed.

Steve ran down the last set of steps, pushing a guy in a hazmat suit out of the way, and you all followed with quick steps. At this point, you had let go of Robin and insisted on finding your own footing so you wouldn’t slow her down any further. 

Some soldiers came from a tunnel on the right, but Steve stopped them by knocking over some barrels. All the way at the end, up ahead, was a door that you all aimed for. You all rushed into it, with Steve hurrying you all in and then slamming it shut.

While Steve put his weight on the door, you all looked around the room for a way out, but to your pure dumb luck, there was none.

“Shit!” you exclaimed.

“Robin!” Steve called to her for help and Robin put her weight on the door to keep the Russians back. Seeing that they needed help, you joined them. Meanwhile, Erica and Dustin found a way out through a grate in the floor with clever thinking.

“Nina, go with them,” Steve said. “Robin and I got this.”

You shook your head as you struggled with the Russians pushing the door.

“No, I won’t leave you.”

“Nina!”

“No!”

“Come on!” Dustin called you guys over, but there was no way you’d all get through there in time.

“Go, just get out of here!” you shouted.

“Go, come on, now!” He insisted.

“No! Just go get some help okay?!” Steve yelled as he exerted force on the door.

“Here, take this!” you said, as you took off your bag and threw it to him. When he gave you a weird look you shouted, “It has my journal, you idiot!”

You couldn’t have the Russians getting their hands on it and knowing the things you knew.

Dustin hesitated, and you all yelled at him to go, multiple times as he tried to say his sappy goodbyes, until he finally went through the grate.

With one final push, the Russians blasted through the door, knocking you all over with a grunt against the wall. They loaded and pointed their guns at you, yelling in Russian aggressively. The three of you looked up at them and raised your hands in surrender. There was no way the three of you were going to be able to fight them and get out of this alive.

***

The Russians tied your hands, and took all three of you with guns behind your heads. None of you resisted, because you were scared shitless. It wasn’t until you realized that they’d be separating you, that Steve started freaking out.

“Hey, hey, hey!”

“Steve!”

The guard wrenched your forward and uttered a threat in Russian. Resisting was futile at that point, and you just had to hope that everything would be okay, that you would see him and Robin again. 

They took you to a square room with a bench, that looked a lot like a cell, and sat you down aggressively. A man stood next to you menacingly, while another interrogated you in broken English. He kept asking you who you worked for, and no matter how many times you told the truth, that you didn’t work for anybody, he didn’t believe you.

“Who do you work for?” he asked even louder.

“I already told you!” you shouted this time. “I don’t work for anyone!”

He gave his friend a look, and with that signal, his friend lifted his hand and brought it across your face in a sharp slap. Your head moved with it, and reverberated with the pain, and you were almost certain you could taste blood in your mouth.

It triggered a rage inside of you, one that you let through in your gaze when you looked back at both of them. And maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but knowing that your legs weren’t bound, that your hands were still in front of you, and there were no machine guns, you decided to fight. 

With a yell, you used both legs to kick the man that slapped you, right in the stomach, making him crash against the wall. The other man lunged and grabbed at you, and you bit him on the arm, making him yell and let you go. With your hands balled up into fists, you hit him across the face. And you were about to reach for his gun that was in its holster, but the other man grabbed you from behind and clicked his gun as he put it against your temple. That made you stop in your tracks.

You were sweating now and you were panting like you had just run a marathon.

The other man who had asked you the questions got up from the ground, and wiped the blood from his cheek that you had drawn. He looked ferocious, his eyes full of fire. It brought you back to reality and made you fearful that he might actually kill you.

He took a step forward and slapped you against the other cheek and you grunted. He gave the man squeezing you an order you didn’t understand. You closed your eyes, thinking that he was going to shoot you, but instead, he brought the butt of the gun to your skull and knocked you out cold.

The next time you woke up, you were thrown on the cold linoleum floor in another room, with your ankles tied together. Robin was in the room too, you could tell because she was freaking out.

“What did you do to them? What did you do?”

There was the sound of a harsh smack, and then Robin cried out.

As you were going in and out, you could see Steve’s bruised and bloodied face while he was passed out next to you. You were too groggy to react fully.

“Steve?” you whispered. You tried to lazily reach out to him, to touch his face with your bound hands, but somebody gave an order in Russian and suddenly all three of you were being tied up back to back with each other in chairs.

“Don’t touch me!” Robin protested. 

You and her both struggled, but once again, to no avail. 

“Steve? Nina? Wake up.”

“Robin,” you rasped out.

“Thank God, you’re awake. What about Steve?”

“He’s out cold,” you said sadly.

You had seen how badly beat up he was. If he was unconscious, they must have hit him pretty hard. The thought filled you with fury. You had a feeling it had something to do with the fact that he was a guy. If you hadn’t shouted or fought so hard, you probably would’ve left that room with minimal damage. Now you wondered what you looked like. 

Now that you were upright, you could feel something coming down the side of your face. You had a feeling it was blood from when the minion knocked you out with his gun.

Robin glared at the men tying you up. “What did you do?”

The man that had interrogated you, stood before Steve and lifted his head up by his hair.

“Don’t touch him!” you hissed.

The man paid no mind to you, and tutted at the state of Steve’s face before dropping it. You put your head against Steve’s shoulder and pleaded for him to hear you, to wake up.

“Steve, baby, wake up. Come on, please.”

The Russian man spoke to you now in English. “I think your friend need a doctor.” He circled over to Robin and lowered down to her eye level. “Good thing. We have the very best.”

Something about his tone told you that these doctors did a lot more than what regular doctors do. The Russians were no strangers to experiments. After all, the experiments they did on you and El were basically a response to theirs. They probably knew a lot more about torture than Dr. Brenner.

The officer let out an evil, booming laugh, and the rest of the men in the room mimicked him. If you were in front of him now, you would’ve spit in his face or head butted him. Luckily, Robin was thinking the same thing, and in that moment, she spit square in the man’s face.

Your jaw dropped, and you expected him to hit her across the face, but instead he wiped the spit away with a handkerchief, and threatened her.

“You’re going to regret that, suka.”

You didn’t know what the last part meant, but it couldn’t have been good. He stood up straight, and turned his gaze down at you. You could see the scratch on his cheekbone and the bandage around the part of his arm that you bit, and resisted the urge to smile.

“Bastard,” you whispered.

With that, he strode out of the room, with his men in tow. Robin yelled after them, ordering them to let you all go. But you knew it was useless. They weren’t letting you guys go, not until they get the answers they think you all have. And considering how much you and Robin struggled against them, you probably didn’t make it any easier on yourselves.

When you were all alone, you tried waking up Steve again, but he was still unconscious. Considering that you were helpless at the moment, there was nothing else to do but talk.

“Good aim back there,” you complimented Robin on her spitting.

She hummed, “Thanks. The bastard deserved it.”

“He deserves a lot more than that.”

She turned her head to you. “Did you see he had a scratch on his face? And the bandage on his arm? Where do you think he got that?”

“Oh, that was me,” you admitted.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, his minion slapped me across the face and I took my shot. Probably wasn’t the best idea considering how that ended up, but hey I almost had ‘em.”

“No wonder they carried you in here like that. You are a certified badass, madam.”

You laughed, “It’s to compensate for my lack of cool powers.”

“Come on, you’ve got cool powers. How many people can say they can see the future?”

“As far as I know, people with crystal balls who lie.”

You both laughed at that. 

Suddenly she asked, “Do you think if we yelled loud enough, someone would hear us?”

“You mean someone who can help?”

“Yeah.”

“I mean we are a million miles underground, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

You both started yelling at the top of your lungs for help. You felt a little stupid, but you wanted to humor Robin and the yelling helped take out any frustrations you had in the first place.

After the 20th, “Help!”, a third voice stopped you in your tracks. Steve’s groggy voice behind you.

“Hey, would you stop yelling?”

You both gasped, “Steve!”

Some of the tension left your shoulders as you let out a sigh of relief. You had hoped he would be okay, but you were starting to get worried the longer he stayed unconscious.

“Steve, oh my god,” Robin breathed out.

“Baby, you’re awake. Are..are you okay?” You tried peering over at him with the little mobility you had.

His voice came out hoarse and tired when he spoke. “My ears are ringing, and I can’t really breathe, my eye feels like it’s about to pop out of my skull, but, you know, apart from that, I’m doing pretty good.”

“Well, the good news is that they’re calling you a doctor,” Robin chuckled.

He finally lifted his head up and looked around at the dimly lit room with steel instruments. “Is this his place of work? I love the vibe.”

You snorted and Robin chuckled.

“Charming. What about you guys?”

“I’m good,” Robin answered.

“Nina? Baby, you okay?” he leaned his head over to you and you did the same so your heads were touching.

“A little banged up, but I’m alive.”

“Oh, so the usual when it comes to these things?”

“Basically.”

“Hey, hey, guys,” Robin said urgently. “There’s a pair of scissors on that tray over there. Steve, you see them?”

You looked around, but were facing the direction opposite of where she was indicating.

“There is?”

“Uh-huh. Yeah I see them,” Steve replied.

“I think if we move at the same time, we could get over there, and then maybe I kick the table, and knock them into your lap.”

“And I could cut the binds.”

You perked up at the idea. “Yes! And we could get out of here!”

Steve nodded, “Gotcha, okay, we can do that. Those morons, they left scissors in here?”

“Yeah, morons.”

“Total morons.”

You laughed.

“Okay, so, on the count of three, we’re gonna hop,” Robin directed.

You nodded, “Okay, okay.”

She counted down, “One, two three,” and you all hopped in the direction of the tray, and moved a few inches. Seeing that it worked you did it again, and you moved a few more inches.

Confident in your plan, you moved once more at the count of three. “One, two, three.” Except this time, the weight of the three of you sent the chairs tipping forward, or in your case, backwards, and you all fell over with a collective grunt. Robin and Steve fell against the floor, and you landed on your back, on top of them, with your face to the ceiling.

“Fantastic,” you murmured.

Robin made a sound that sounded a lot like she was crying. So much so that it made you frown, and Steve very worried.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said softly. “Don’t cry, Robin.”

But then the sound, which was actually giggling, turned into full on manic laughter. It was contagious and considering the circumstances and the state you were in, you couldn’t help but giggle along with her.

“Are you guys laughing?” Steve asked in disbelief once he realized what was really happening.

“Yeah,” She said amongst laughter.

“Jesus.”

“I’m sorry!” she went on. “I’m so sorry. It’s just…I can’t believe I’m gonna die in a secret Russian base with Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington and his psychic girlfriend. It’s too trippy man.”

You narrowed your eyes at that. “Wow.”

“We’re not gonna die!” Steve argued. “We’re gonna get out of here, okay? Let’s just…just think for a second. Nina, any ideas? Any visions in that brain of yours that can help us?”

“Dustin has my journal and my powers don’t work that way. My visions can’t get those scissors into my hands.”

“Damn it,” he cursed. 

“Our best bet is that Dustin and Erica figured something out by now.” you both sighed.

Robin, now having calmed down from her fit of laughter, wasn’t thinking about a way out anymore. Her brain went to a place neither you nor Steve would’ve expected. High school.

“Steve, do you remember Mrs. Click’s sophomore history class?”

He shook his head, “What?”

“Mrs. Clickity-Clackity. That’s what us band dweebs called her.”

She went on a tangent about the history class that she used to take with Steve. She described how he was always late, with the same breakfast always in hand. She sat behind him, two days a week for a year. 

The way she talked about him sounded bitter compared to how she interacted with him. It reminded you of when you asked her if she knew him back in high school, back when you were still at Scoops. And at first you were confused as to what the point of the story was, but you became too intrigued to question it. Maybe there was a point. Or maybe you just needed a distraction.

“Do you even remember me from that class?” she asked.

Steve shook his head and sadly said, “No.”

“Of course you don’t. You were a real asshole, you know that?” 

“Hey!” you jumped at his defense.

“No, Nina, she’s right. I was.”

“And listen, I know he’s different. I know you’re different okay? What I’m saying is…it didn’t even matter. It didn’t even matter that you were an ass. I was still obsessed with you. And hey, I like you, but it’s not because I had a crush on you, oh no.”

“Then…why?”

She took in a breath, and you looked over in her direction, wondering if she was going to admit what you thought she was going to admit. About the vision you had. And Tammy Thompson.

“Do you remember that piece of paper Nina handed me, in order to prove that she could see the future?”

“..Yeah.”

“Well, it’s because she was protecting my secret. The note had a name of a girl that was in that same History class. Tammy Thompson.”

“Tammy Thompson,” he uttered the name in recognition. “Yeah, yeah I remember her. What about her?”

“Well, that’s why I was jealous and obsessed. Because she wouldn’t stop looking at you. I wanted her to look at me, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from you and your stupid hair. And I didn’t understand because you would get bagel crumbs all over the floor, and you asked dumb questions, and you were a douchebag! And you didn’t even like her and I would go home and just scream into my pillow.”

Steve shook his head, “But Tammy Thompson’s a girl.”

“Steve.”

“Yeah?”

You rolled your eyes and sighed, “Steve, that’s the point.”

A moment of silence passed and then you heard his very soft, but very passionate, “Oh…..Holy shit.”

“Yeah, holy shit,” Robin reiterated.

There was a sudden buzzing sound, followed by the clang of the door opening, and the same group of Russians came in, along with a man in a lab coat. The Russian who had interrogated you, stood over the three of you on the floor and laughed. 

“Where were you three going?” He clicked his tongue and shook his head.

Two of his minions put you back upright, which was the only relief. The man went over to Steve and lowered down to his eye level.

“Try to tell the truth this time, yes? It will make your visit with Dr. Zharkov less painful.”

He brushed his hand over Steve’s face, the places where he was hurt, and Steve winced. You twitched in your restraints, wishing that you could hit him again like last time.

“Leave him alone,” you hissed.

He moved over to you, his glare only deepening. He looked over to his doctor friend and nodded.

“Her first.”

Dr. Zharkov, a bald man with circular glasses and crazy eyes, stepped into view and you jumped when you saw what looked like a gun with a blue vial on one end, and a giant needle on the other. Not only was the mere sight of it terrifying, but it reminded you of the times you were poked and prodded back when you were a kid. For once you were genuinely terrified.

“Wait a second, hold on,” Steve stuttered when he caught a glimpse of the needle.

“What the hell is that?” you gasped.

“It’ll help you talk,” the doctor replied, before grabbing you by the hair to expose your neck.

“Wait, wait, wait, stop!” 

You tried pleading with him but there was no use, because before you knew it, he was sticking the needle underneath your ear and you were crying out in pain. When he was done with you, he did the same to Steve and Robin, and then the lot of them left you alone once again as whatever drug they pumped you with set in. 

You had expected the drug to have some extreme side effects like pain, but as time passed by, all you felt was extreme happiness and the urge to say anything that popped into your head. Any headaches from your visions or pain from when they hurt you was gone. You, Steve, and Robin just sat there and talked about how incredibly good you felt, so much so, to the point of laughter.

You had never laughed hysterically in such dire situations.

“Morons, they messed up the drug,” Steve giggled.

“They messed it up!” Robin sang.

“Morons!” you exclaimed, very loopily, unbeknownst to you.

You proceeded to chant the word, “morons” over and over, until it clicked in your head that something was off, but you were too happy about it to complain.

You gasped like a little kid, “Baby, I think there’s definitely something wrong with us.”

“Yeah, something’s wrong.”

At that moment, the Russians came back, but this time it was just the leader and the doctor. They immediately started interrogating you one by one, starting with Steve.

“Let’s try this again. Yes?”

Steve nodded and gave an, “uh-uh.” But the hilarious thing was, the Russian didn’t expect the truth to be so ridiculous. Like the fact that Steve didn’t work for any government, and, in fact, worked for Scoops Ahoy, an ice cream shop.

“Who do you work for?”

“Scoops. Scoops Ahoy.”

For some reason that was the funniest response ever, and had you and Robin giggling.

“How did you find us?”

“Totally by accident.”

The Russian was not pleased with those answers, gave the doctor an order in Russian. Doctor Zharkov grabbed a pair of pliers from his tray and walked over to Steve with the intention to do something to him. You all started freaking out, and he was about to pull off a fingernail when Robin yelled,

“There was a code! There was a code! We heard a code!”

The doctor stopped and the other man went over to Robin now and asked her about it. She spewed out the truth about how you came about the code. She even mentioned you, and how you used your powers to find the code, and you all figured out the rest all on your own.

“You think you’re so smart, but a couple of kids who scoop ice cream for a living cracked your code in a day and now people know you’re here!”

“Who knows we are here, suka?” he spit.

“Uh, well, Dustin knows,” Steve said out loud.

Robin gasped at the fact that he gave away that information, “Steve.”

“Yeah, Dustin Henderson knows,” he laughed.

“Steve!” you and Robin repeated, but barely felt any anger due to the drug.

“Dustin Henderson,” the Russian uttered with a smile, and circled over to Steve. “Is this your small curly haired friend?”

“Oh, curly haired. Great hair. Small. Kind of like a fro, yeah.”

“Erica knows too. Erica Sinclair,” you found yourself saying before you could stop yourself. In your head, you couldn’t have Steve forget about her.

“Nina!” Robin yelled at you now.

“Oh, great, now her mom is definitely gonna kill you,” Steve laughed. 

“Oh no!” you gasped dramatically and then burst into laughter.

“Where are they?” the Russian demanded. “This Dustin Henderson and Erica Sinclair.”

“They’re long gone, you big asshole. And he’s probably calling Hopper and Hopper is calling the U.S. Cavalry.”

You nodded really big and dramatically in agreement.

“That’s my dad,” you muttered.

Steve kept going on and on about how you were going to get saved, and the Russian didn’t believe him even though the truth serum kept Steve from lying. Even you knew in your gut that he was right. There was no way Hopper wasn’t going to tear this town apart looking for you.

“Is that right?” The Russian asked in a teasing tone.

Steve laughed, “Well, yeah.”

Right on cue, the alarm started blaring, signaling that there was another intruder or some kind of emergency. The man looked at all of you in disbelief before hurrying out of the room, leaving you behind with the doctor. The alarm was obnoxiously loud and you wanted it to stop. 

Some time passed, before the door burst open and Dustin came in with what looked like a giant taser on a stick, and shocked the doctor until he was unconscious. All while he screamed his lungs out. Erica was right behind him.

“Hey, you guys!” you smiled.

“Hey, Henderson! That’s crazy, I was just talking about you,” Steve mused.

Dustin got to work on Steve’s restraints and said, “Get ready to run.”


	8. "Parasite"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you, Steve, and Robin have some drug-induced shenanigans, and then are reunited with some of your friends.

Suddenly you were crammed in the back of a cart with Robin and Steve, while Dustin and Erica rode in the front as they drove you up the tunnel, back to the elevator. You, Robin, and Steve were joking and laughing about practically nothing, the truth serum still in your systems making you far past loopy. It was safe to say that the kids were not amused, or happy with having to babysit three drugged up adults.

Dustin crashed against some barrels with a screeching halt and the three of you hit your heads against the grate separating you from the front of the cart. Before you knew it, you were ordered by Dustin to get out and hurry into the elevator (which they apparently stole a keycard for).

For you, everything was a fun, elevated, blur. It was like you were drunk, but with more control of your body than you normally would with alcohol. The three of you were a pack of kids, having a little too much fun in this dire situation. After all, you had just escaped from a Russian base, Steve’s face was beat up, and yours was probably half as bad. Still, you felt none of that.

While the elevator went up, Steve stood on a platform cart and acting like he was surfing while Robin pushed it back and forth in amusement. You laughed hysterically, and then he urged you to get on with him. With zero hesitation, you did, and the two of you were having a blast, until Robin pulled a little too harshly and the two of you fell on the ground. You groaned in pain, but didn’t move to get back up.

Dustin and Erica speculated amongst themselves about whether or not you were drunk. Dustin bent down over Steve and put his hand over his forehead to check and see what was going on.

“He’s burning up,” he said.

“You’re burning up,” Steve retorted.

He checked Steve’s eyes and then proceeded to do the same to you, but then you smacked his hands away.

“No touchy!”

Dustin turned back to Erica. “Their pupils are super dilated.”

“Maybe they’re all drugged,” she suggested.

Steve booped Dustin’s nose, and the boy slapped him lightly on his cheek.

“Steve, are you drugged?”

Steve started preaching dramatically, “How many times, dad? I don’t do drugs. It’s only marijuana.”

You cackled on the floor, but Dustin didn’t find any of that funny.

“This isn’t funny, okay? I need to know what they did to you. Are you gonna die on us?”

“Well actually, we all die. It’s just a matter of how and when,” Robin chimed in all wide eyed.

“Don’t be so dramatic. We’re not gonna die,” you slurred, but then gasped at the sound of your rumbling stomach, “Well, actually, I’m pretty hungry so I might die of hunger if we don’t get some food.”

Robin and Steve’s faces lit up at the mention of food and started verbally fantasizing about making a stop at the food court. Dustin, however, tried his best to find out where Steve’s car was so you could make a getaway. He promised food on the way, which only made you more excited. But, as it turns out, the Russians took his keys, so there was no way to drive it anyway. So, that plan was a bust.

When the elevator stopped at the surface, and you were back through the grey double doors once again, stepping outside was the best breath of fresh air you ever had. Any anxiety you had about being trapped underground forever had left, and you were like a giddy child who had never been outside before.

You, Robin, and Steve were sticking out your tongues, trying to”taste” the air, when suddenly Dustin and Erica told you to run. All of you were confused and questioning why you were running, as they pushed you through another set of double doors, leading into the mall.

You all held hands as the kids dragged you through concrete hallways. You were giggling and singing, thinking that this was some kind of fun field trip where you had to hold hands. The thought of being chased by Russians was somewhere in the back of your mind, and it was probably the one thing keeping your feet moving, while the drugged part of your brain found amusement in everything.

Dustin led you all into a secret door that led into the movie theatre. 

You followed him through the carpeted walkway decorated with posters, and into a theatre with a movie that had already started. The poster on the outside said, _Back to the Future._ Must have been new, which was thrilling for you. Steve stole a half full bag of popcorn from the trashcan on the way in. You found seats at the very first row, which were the worst seats, but when you complained, Dustin berated you. There were three for you, Steve, and Robin, and then two for Erica and Dustin on the other end of the row.

Dustin looked you three in the eyes and said, like a serious parent, “Whatever you do, don’t...go...anywhere.”

You rolled your eyes at him like an exasperated teenager. “Fine, dad.”

Steve and Robin chuckled at that, and then the kids went to take their seats. The sound of the movie captured your attention as soon as they were gone and you were enraptured within seconds. You didn’t know what was going on, but there was an old man in a lab coat, and a very cute guy in a red vest talking about science.

“What’s going on?” Robin whispered.

“I don’t know, but that guy’s really cute. We should stay.”

“Hey, he’s not that attractive!” Steve said, and then was shushed by someone behind him. 

***

The more time passed, and the more you sat in front of the screen, the more antsy and distracted the three of you got. The thrill of the movie was long past for you guys. Steve finished his popcorn and three of you were very hungry, and very thirsty, so you decided to go look for something to drink.

Carefully and quietly, the three of you snuck out of the movie theater and looked around until you saw a water fountain next to the restrooms and some movie posters. Steve latched himself to the water fountain while Robin rested against the wall, and you stared a little too hard at the posters.

Robin made some comments about the movie you were watching.

“So, like, I wasn’t totally focused in there, or anything, but I’m pretty sure that mom was trying to bang her son.”

“Wait, wait, the hot chick was Alex P. Keaton’s mom?” Steve blurted out.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

“But they’re the same age.”

“Yeah, but he went back in time,” you said, pointing a finger at him. “That car the crazy scientist dude made took him there. Right? With the fire?”

“Right.”

Steve snorted, “Then why is it called _Back to the Future_?”

You frowned at that and sat down on the floor. “Yeah…”

Robin rambled on about the reasoning behind it. “He has to go back to the future, because he’s in the past. So the future is actually the present, which is his time.”

You caught up a bit, but it made your brain hurt, so you laid all the way down on the carpet. Steve still didn’t understand, and Robin got frustrated so she pushed him away from the fountain, demanding her turn. 

Steve walked up to you and laughed. “What are you doing down there, you weirdo?”

“I don’t know,” you giggled. “My body wants to stop.”

He took your hand and tugged you back upright onto your feet, and took you to the edge of the railing. The both of you looked up, towards the glass ceiling of the mall which was lit up by small lights. The lights were all stretched out and danced around with every little move, like crystals. It amazed you both.

“Robin! Robin, come look at this!” you called out to her.

She detached herself from the fountain and bounced over to you. Upon looking up, she gasped in awe.

“Check this...this ceiling, it’s beautiful,” Steve went on.

“Oh wow.”

You swayed in place, making it dance even more. Robin even spun around a little. The whole thing looked like a kaleidoscope the more you looked at it, and the more you looked at it the dizzier you got, and the dizzier you got, the more sick you felt. 

Suddenly you could feel bile start to rise to the back of your throat, and not being able to hold it in any longer, the three of you ran to the bathroom. Each of you took a stall - Robin in the first, you in the middle, Steve in the last - and emptied the contents of your stomach into the toilet bowl in front of you.

When you were done, you flushed the toilet and sat back against the stall to regain yourself. You no longer felt sick or giddy for no reason, although you felt horrendous after puking your guts out. However, you felt like yourself again, you slowly realized. What solidified that was when Robin said,

“The ceiling stopped spinning for me. Is it still spinning for you guys?”

You looked up, and to your surprise, everything was completely still and back to normal.

“Holy shit,” you and Steve uttered at the same time.

“No,” he answered.

“Not spinning for me. Thank God.”

“You think we puked it all up?” he asked.

“Maybe. Ask me something,” Robin said, and then took on a fake Russian accent, “Interrogate me.”

Steve went at it first, “Okay, interrogate you, sure. Ummm…..Were you really in love with Tammy Thompson?”

You heard Robin sigh, “Ugh, yes. Maybe not love, but I really, really liked her.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“Really?”

“I mean...she’s a total dud!”

You scoffed at his audacity.

“She is not!” Robin shot back defensively.

“Yes, she is, she wants to be like a singer. She wants to move to like Nashville and shit.”

“She has dreams!”

“She can’t even hold a tune. She’s practically tone deaf. Have you heard her?”

Robin chuckled in disbelief as he proceeded to make fun of Tammy by singing a song terribly. “I can’t with you, Harrington. Next question!”

Despite what she said, you could tell by the tone of her voice that she felt relieved that Steve was so cool about it. You had been sorely interrupted when she had admitted her secret to him, so there was no chance for him to respond. Luckily, he had a big heart, and clearly cared about Robin a lot, which warmed your own heart. He was in desperate need of new friends his age too.

“Fine, I’ll go,” you offered yourself up. “Ask me anything.”

Robin hummed pensively as she thought of a question. No doubt she was the one who had a million of them still. Steve knew you like the back of his hand and would probably ask something stupid, like when the last time you peed your pants was.

Finally she asked you the most dreaded question: “I know you’re psychic, but have you ever had a dream job?”

You closed your eyes and groaned, because this was the question you still didn’t have an answer for.

“I honestly don’t know. I’m actually currently trying to figure that out at the moment. Being abducted by Russians makes that a little hard.”

“Even when you got out of the facility, you didn’t think of what you wanted to do?”

You started rambling, everything you’ve been thinking about came tumbling out of your mouth.

“Well, my dream was always to get out, and then I got out, then my dream was to have a home. I got the home, then aliens tried to kill us. Now I work at The Gap and Russians are trying to kill us. Whenever I stop to breathe, and all I want is to be normal and have a family and a nice relationship, everyone’s trying to pressure me to figure things out and it doesn’t help that I’m still trying to figure out who I am outside of having powers. But if I’m being honest, I’m starting to wonder if that’s all I’m made for. If I’m just a weird useless nobody with a messed up past and a doomed future.”

“Hey,” you heard Steve utter, before he slid under the stall wall to get to you. He sat across from you and looked at you sternly. “Don’t say that. You are not a useless nobody, alright? You’re awesome and amazing and badass and funny and so many things I could go on and on.”

You gazed at him lovingly. “Thank you, I appreciate that, but badass and funny only get me so far, Steve.”

“That’s not true!” Robin piped up from the stall next to you. “You saved those kids from Demodogs and Billy Hargrove! You kicked a Russian’s ass!”

Steve’s eyes widened at that. “You did?”

“Yeah, I tried,” you shrugged. 

“Nice.”

“But still, what about when this is all over, huh? What do I have to go back to? What is the plan after The Gap? I mean, I never went to school. I didn’t have the same opportunities as you guys to possibly go to college. What jobs are there for someone like me?”

“Hey, just because my parents are trying to push the same shit on you that they’ve been pushing on me for years, doesn’t mean you have to listen to them, Nina. Even you said that Hopper’s more than happy to have you with him, that he’ll help you. I’m sure there’s something for you to do.”

“I know, it’s just hard to deal with the crisis about my impending future or lack thereof.”

“I think we’re all on the same boat there,” he smiled sadly.

Robin agreed, and then suddenly asked, “You said that you’ve never been to school?”

“No, I never had any of that. I grew up as an experiment, then I got out, lived on the streets, now I have a home. No school though.”

Steve shrugged, “You didn’t really miss much. School sucks anyway.”

You smiled, “Easy for you to say. You were normal and had friends and family and were popular.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“Hey, Nine. Have you ever thought of getting your GED?” Robin asked.

You and Steve furrowed your brows in confusion. “My what?”

“Your GED. It’s a test that you take when you want to graduate high school early, or for when you never finished high school and want to get a chance to. It’s the equivalent of a high school degree, and it could help with jobs and college applications and stuff.”

That got your attention. You had never heard of a GED or even thought it was possible for someone like you, who had never even been to any kind of school, let alone high school, to get one. The fact that there was something you could take, to give yourself a chance, filled you with hope.

“And I can just...take it?”

“Well you’d have to take night classes and study for it, but yeah!”

Your mouth fell open in a gleeful smile and you looked at Steve, who was amused by your expression. Despite everything that was happening, you felt very happy right now.

“Robin I think you may have saved Nina from an existential crisis,” he called over to her.

“You’re welcome!”

He smiled at you and took your hand, and you truly looked at him for the first time since getting captured. He was all bruised up, especially his left eye. You put your hand on his face and winced at the thought of what they did to him.

“Even when you win a fight, you gotta get yourself beat up, huh?”

“It’s a tradition at this point. I never leave one of these things without a black eye.”

He brushed his knuckles over your temple and jaw lightly. There must have been blood or bruises there.

“You got a little banged up this time too. That Russian?”

“Yup. He wasn’t happy with me.”

He shook his head at you disapprovingly.

“Can’t tell if I should be impressed or disappointed.”

“Is comparing battle wounds a normal for you two?” Robin scooted out of her stall, and peered into yours. Her voice was laced with sarcasm, but she was grinning.

You snorted, “Basically.”

The bathroom door banged open out of nowhere, and in came an annoyed Dustin and Erica. You all jumped and turned your gazes on them. If you were honest, you had forgotten about them.

“Okay. What the hell?” he seethed.

The look on his face made you all laugh, and to him it probably looked like the drug was still in your system.

Now that you were all together again, and there was no loopiness, the five of you sprung back into action and continued the plan, which was to get away from the Russians. Their base was in fact in Starcourt, and they were no doubt looking for you.

So, you waited until the movie ended, and when the crowd of people came out, you followed them and blended in seamlessly. It worked really well. Although while you were there, Steve admitted that you both gave Erica and Dustin’s full names to the Russians, so they shouldn’t go to their houses. That didn’t fare well with them, unsurprisingly.

“My momma’s gonna slit your throat!” Erica shouted.

“I’m sorry! I was drugged!”

“Try telling her that!”

Dustin argued that you should’ve toughed it out and resisted, which only made you bicker even more. That was, until Robin stopped you and pointed towards the Starcourt exit. You all stopped arguing and looked up, where a pair of Russians were inspecting people’s bags as they walked out.

Your heart dropped to your stomach.

“Shit,” you cursed.

“Abort,” Dustin said. “Abort. Abort!”

You all ran towards the escalators, only to find that they’ve been stopped and roped off. But that didn’t stop you. Robin sat down in between the escalators and used that space to slide downstairs. You all followed close behind and ran to the best hiding spot you could find, which was behind one of the counters at the food court.

You all crouched down next to each other and basically held your breath so they wouldn’t find you. Starcourt was emptying out from the movie’s last showing and after that it would just be the five of you and the Russians. There was nowhere else for you to hide, no way for you guys to get to the exit without possibly getting shot.

You intertwined your fingers with Steve’s, clutching onto him for dear life. You couldn’t bear the idea of something happening to him, or to any of them. If your visions were right, you just had to hope that someone would find you. After all, you made it this far.

Still, your heart was beating so fast, you thought you might pass out. It was silent save for the very very faint sound of all of your breathing, and the occasional footsteps from the Russians beyond. At one point, you heard one of them whisper something, and the footsteps got closer. 

You shot Steve a look. He looked just as scared shitless as you felt.

Just when you thought they’d find you, just when you thought you were dead. A car alarm started blaring, making you all jump. It was the car that they were using in a giveaway in the middle of the court. A Russian cursed, then, a loud aggressive sound resounded around the mall. The floor rumbled, as you heard what could only be described, as the car being thrown across the court.

When everything went silent, you got up slowly from behind the counter, and saw that four Russians were knocked out, and the red car from the giveaway was upside down and banged up on the other side of the court. You all stared at it, slack-jawed. Then that bubble of hope grew and grew as realization set in, because you knew only one person who could throw a car like that.

You looked up towards the second floor of the mall and gasped.

“El!”

Just as you suspected, your little sister was there, standing against the railing, with Mike, Max, Lucas, Will, Nancy, and Jonathan. Her eyes found you, and you both smiled brightly at one another. Her nose was bloody and she looked a little banged up, but she was alive. Just like you were.

You jogged to them and met them at the bottom of the escalator. And that was when you noticed that Mike was supporting El, who was apparently injured. Dustin beat you to her, and threw his arms around them both.

“You threw that thing like a Hot Wheel!”

He let her go, and in your eagerness to hug her, you pushed him aside.

“Alright, kid, it’s my turn.”

“Oh, fine.”

She let go of Mike and threw her arms around your torso and embraced you tightly, not caring how long it took. The both of you breathed a sigh of relief. Then you pulled back and held her by the shoulders, scanning her fully.

“Where have you been? I’ve looked everywhere for you!” she scolded.

You chuckled, “It’s a long story.”

You all stood in a circle and started ranting about everything.

“I don’t understand what happened to that car,” Robin commented as she looked towards the overturned vehicle.

“El has superpowers,” Dustin pointed to El, who you had your arm around.

“Remember I told you?” you reminded her.

Her and Erica gasped, “That’s El?”

Nancy pointed to Robin, “I’m sorry. Who are you?”

“I’m Robin. I work with Steve.”

“She cracked the top secret code,” Dustin grinned.

“Yeah, which is how we found the Russians,” Steve added.

“Russians?” Now Jonathan spoke. “Wait, what Russians?”

You motioned to the men who were knocked out on the ground. “The Russians! We snuck into their base and they kidnapped us!” You then pointed to Steve’s face.

“Wait, those were Russians?” Max asked in awe.

“Some of them,” Erica said.

Lucas gestured dramatically with his hands, “Wait, what are you talking about?”

The group kept bickering and it only ended with you being exasperated because everyone was confused about everything that was going on. You tried explaining things from your point of view, but everybody had something to say.

You were unexpectedly distracted, however, when El started pulling away from you saying, “Nine. Nine….”

She stepped away from the group. She was hunched over and breathing strangely.

You peeled away from the group and put a hand on her back. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Her hands flew to her ears and she scrunched up her face in pain, and suddenly she buckled underneath herself. With a gasp, you caught her in your arms, and you slowly went down to the ground with her.

“Guys!” you called to the group urgently. “Guys! Something’s wrong!”

They all stopped talking and rushed over to the both of you, Mike in the lead. 

“My leg. My leg,” she cried.

Jonathan lifted her left pant leg and took off the bandage that had been placed there, and revealed a bloody wound. You all groaned at the awful sight. What was even worse, was that underneath her skin, it looked like something was moving. As it did so, El started grunting and groaning in agony.

You rested El’s head on your lap, and put a hand on her face to comfort her. Mike tried his best to soothe her with words.

“El! El, no,” you gasped, your eyes getting red rimmed at the sight of your baby sister being hurt. Your hand brushed her skin, and suddenly, visions flashed before your eyes.

_The Mindflayer looked down at you. A giant beast, attacking El, biting her on the leg. Billy with his veins protruding from his skin, singing, “I’m gonna find youuuu,” and then laughing. El, standing on a beach, with dark clouds overhead. A blonde little boy on the beach, having fun with his mom. El saying, “You were happy.” Billy crying, and then standing before a giant monster, offering himself up. A voice saying, “Cut it out. Cut it out. Cut it out.”_

You snapped back to reality as El screamed in pain. Luckily you hadn’t passed out that time, and you were thankful that you were already on the ground, so you could shake it off. You wrapped your arms around El so that her back was against your chest, and her hands gripped onto you as she sobbed and writhed. 

The sound of her cries were like a twisted knife in your heart. It made you enter into a protective, anxious state.

“Jesus Christ,” Dustin cursed.

“Cut it out!” you yelled, looking at her leg with the parasite moving. “Can’t you see it’s hurting her? Cut that thing out of her!”

Robin and Steve looked at you warily. If you had a knife, you would’ve done it, but all you could do was be there for her now that you could.

Jonathan nodded quickly and started getting up. “Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?”

He disappeared to go find a knife or something. Meanwhile, you held onto each other for dear life. Everyone tried talking to her and soothing her, Mike especially. He held her hand, meanwhile on your other side, Steve had his hand on your shoulder.

“Are you okay?” he whispered to you. “Because you looked like you were about to pass out earlier there.”

“I saw something but I don’t want to talk about it,” you clipped. It was the last of your worries right now.

“Okay then.”

Robin started rambling about how the injury actually wasn’t that bad.

“There was a...the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something it was insane.”

You all stared at her like she was crazy.

“Robin?” Steve asked.

“Yeah?”

“You’re not helping.”

“I’m sorry.”

Finally, Jonathan came back with a kitchen knife from one of the restaurant kitchens and kneeled down by El’s leg. He looked at her with reassuring eyes and spoke in the same tone.

“Okay, alright, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?”

“Okay,” She sobbed.

He put on some gloves that he found and held out a wooden spoon.

“You’re gonna want to bite down on this, okay?”

Mike grabbed it for her and put it in her mouth to bite down with her teeth. Jonathan held the tip of the knife over the protruding part of her leg, but then hesitated and looked around at all of you.

You nodded, “Do it.”

“Okay,” he whispered.

To your surprise, nobody looked away, not even you.

You and Mike held tightly onto El, and she squeezed the both of you, as Jonathan sliced into her skin. She screamed against the wooden spoon as you watched in horror. He put down the knife and attempted to search for the parasite with his bare hands and you all groaned at how disgusting and graphic it looked. 

Sadly it was to no avail. Even you wanted him to stop.

El spit out the spoon and cried, “Stop it! Stop!”

Nancy pushed him back and Jonathan finally took his hand out and froze. You looked down at El questioningly. If he couldn’t take it out, then how?

“I can do it,” she whimpered, and used all her strength to sit upright. “I can do it.”

You all watched as she put her hand over her wounded leg, and used her powers to force the thing out. It writhed within her skin and she screamed with every movement. Whatever was in there, was fighting to stay in. But she used all of her power, all of her strength, and screamed continuously with fury. 

Suddenly, the glass from the store window next to you shattered. All of you shielded yourself from the glass as it came raining down. And then, when you looked up, El had the parasite out of her leg, up in the air, and she threw it a few feet away with a final scream.

You watched in horror as the bodiless thing crawled and tried to get away, only to get crushed underneath a big black boot.

You nervously followed the big boot all the way up, thinking that it was going to belong to a Russian, until you were met with a face that almost made you want to cry. Because it was Jim Hopper, your dad, the last missing piece to all of this. And he was flanked by Joyce Byers, and a man in glasses that you didn’t know.

_Oh, thank God._


	9. "Fireworks"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Battle of Starcourt takes place.

“Dad,” you gasped.

“What the hell is going on here?”

Everyone scrambled up from the floor, glass crunching beneath their feet. Mike helped El up from the floor and you stood on her other side in case she needed help. You needn’t take any steps towards Hopper because he was already closing the distance between you. Joyce went to her sons, Will and Jonathan. 

You went towards Hopper first, and reached out to let him pull you into his big arms. For the first time in days you felt safe now that he was there. Everyone you loved was safe and sound and after the days you had, the thought brought tears to your eyes. He kissed the top of your head and pulled back to scan your face.

“What the hell, Nine? Are you okay?”

“I am now,” you over his shirt, the gun in his hand, and the gash on his brow in one swoop. “Where the hell have you been?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

He looked over at El, who’s eyes grew big at the sight of Hopper. He let go of you to embrace her gently. Everyone started circling around again, awkwardly. It was obvious that there was a lot you needed to fill each other in on.

***

You gathered between a fountain and a group of benches with some trees. Hopper sat on one of those benches with El resting sprawled against him as he put a damp washcloth against her forehead, and Joyce was by her feet. You stood by Hopper, and Steve took his place next to you, and you were all part of a circle, facing each other.

Jonathan, Nancy, and the kids who had been on the surface all talked about the fleshy monster that had bit El, the one you had seen in your visions. According to Mike, it was a monster made out of people created by the Mind Flayer to stop El, to kill her and pave its way into your world.

“It almost did,” you seethed, still thinking of the parasite that had been eating away at her.

“And that was just one tiny piece of it,” Nancy said. 

“How big is this thing?” Hopper asked.

Jonathan answered that. “It’s big. Thirty feet at least.”

“Yeah,” Lucas looked at you and Hopper apologetically before delivering, “It sorta destroyed your cabin.”

Your face dropped. The only home you had was destroyed by the Mind Flayer, which meant you’d have no place to go back to after all of this. It was too overwhelming to think about now.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Yeah...sorry.”

Still confused and disgusted by the concept of this monster you couldn’t help but ask, “So this thing...it’s made out of people? Melted people?”

“Yeah,” Nancy nodded.

“And it’s like a weapon. Instead of screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made it’s weapon with melted people?” Steve asked once again.

“Yes, exactly.”

You and Robin shared a wide eyed expression from afar. Steve seemed just as bewildered. Then again, this was aliens were you dealing with. Nothing ever made sense.

“Yeah, okay, yeah, just making sure.”

“Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?” Joyce chimed in.

Max finally spoke up. “El beat the shit out of it, but yeah, it’s still alive.”

“But if we close the gate again-” Will suggested.

“We cut the brain off the body!”

“And kill it. Theoretically.”

The gate. You remembered what you saw down there in the Russian base, the giant laser going into the fleshy wall. You remembered the weight, the headaches, the passing out. Most importantly you remembered that it was a millions miles underground, and if you wanted to close it again, one or more of you would have to go down there again.

You and Steve shared a knowing look. 

“Yoo-hoo!” You all looked up, towards where the man with the glasses, Murray Bauman, was waving pieces of paper, calling to all of you.

You joined him at a table, where he laid down what looked like a hand drawn map of the secret underground base. He pointed to the part of the map called “The Hub” which is where you assumed you had seen the Russians mingling about. Then he pointed to “The Vault Room”, and then traced a line to where the gate should be. Based on the map itself the place looked familiar, after all you had been chased through it before.

The plan was to get in there and get to the gate, but the way he was talking about it like it was a piece of cake, didn’t sit well with you or Erica.

He said the Vault Room might be 50ft from the Gate, but Erica stepped forward and said, “More like 500.”

Everybody stared at her in surprise.

“What you’re just gonna Waltz in there like it’s some commie Disneyland or something?”

Hopper raised his eyebrows. Meanwhile you couldn’t contain a smile.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Murray asked.

“Erica Sinclair. Who are you?”

“Murray...Bauman.”

“Listen, Mr. Bunman. I’m not trying to tell you how to do things, but I’ve been down in that shit hole for 24 hours, and with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you’re all gonna die.”

“Ummm, I’m sorry. Why is this 4 year old speaking to me?”

“I’m 10 you bald bastard!”

“Erica!” Lucas scolded her. 

She turned to him and shouted, “Just the facts!”

Finally you stepped up behind her and spoke up. “She’s right. This isn’t some bank heist, it’s a fucking Russian base, a huge one, and those assholes don’t mess around. You’re all gonna die.” You looked over at Hopper, who locked eyes with you, and you were reminded of sad visions, Joyce screaming, him crying. Something bad could happen down there, you knew it. “I’ve seen it. If we don’t do this right, you could all die.”

“But you don’t have to,” Dustin’s voice came from behind you. “Excuse me.”

You stepped aside and gave him space to take the map and talk about what was on his mind. He circled a storage facility, and described that the base had its own ventilation system, which went directly into where the gate was. He offered up himself and Erica to show them the way through the maze since they knew it well.

It sounded like a solid plan to you, although Hopper was in disbelief that a pair of kids were telling him what to do. He locked eyes with you again and you could tell he felt like this was ridiculous, you could tell he wanted to say no, but he also knew to trust you and your visions at this point.

Finally he huffed a sigh. “Fine.”

He handed Dustin a radio, making him promise to do it from somewhere safe, but then Dustin argued that he needed a high enough frequency to reach the Russian base. And, of course, he had a radio in the highest point in Hawkins. He just needed a head start and a car.

With a grumble, Hopper gave him the keys to the car he had. Steve and Robin both offered up to go with them. 

While they got to the hilltop, Joyce, Hopper, and Murray would go to the Russian base. As for El and the rest of the kids, they’d be going with Nancy and Jonathan to a safer place.

And at first it seemed obvious that you’d go with your original troop that you had been stuck underground with, but in your heart it just didn’t feel right. You couldn’t help but think about El, and how you were away from her when she needed you the most, and now you had the chance to make up for it. She was hurt and she was your sister, you needed to be there for her.

While everyone was dispersed, Steve came up to you and talked to you in private.

“Hey,” he said, taking your hand. “Are you okay? You were a little off back there.”

“I know, I was just worried about El. I don’t know what I would do if I lost her, you know?”

“Yeah, I know the feeling.” You squeezed his hand, understanding what he meant. It was how he felt about you. “You doing okay right now?”

“Yeah, everyone’s still alive right? And we’re out of that hellhole.”

“Right? I’m glad it’s not any of us going down there again.”

“Oh God, I know,” you both laughed.

“Anyways, you’re coming with us right?”

“Uhhh...no I don’t think so,” you said hesitantly, looking over at El.

“What? You’re splitting up the Scoops Troop?”

You giggled at the name. “The what?”

“The Scoops Troop. I don’t know, Robin said it,” he rambled. “Are you sure you don’t wanna come?”

“Yeah, I want to go with El. Hopper’s going underground and I don’t want to leave her behind again. She’s hurt and I need to take care of her in case this thing finds her again. You guys can do without me, right?”

“Yeah, we’ll be fine. How hard can sitting on a hilltop be?” he joked, but then got serious. “Are you sure you’ll be fine?”

You smiled at him fondly and how worried he was about you. The thing was, you weren’t really sure if you’d be fine. The rest of the future hadn’t played out yet and there were still things that could happen, but you didn’t want to tell him that. Although he could probably tell regardless.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ll see you out there.”

You kissed him as a goodbye, lingering for a moment before having to let go.

“Hey, guys, not to interrupt the moment, but we have to go!” Dustin shouted.

Steve pulled away from you so your noses were grazing, his eyes oozing lovesickness.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you too,” you smiled, your heart gushing.

He hugged you tightly before jogging over to Dustin who was waiting with Robin and Erica. Suddenly, you were reminded of your journal, and wondered where it was. You felt around yourself, but then remembered you had given it to Dustin. Needing to be sure, you called out to him before he left.

“Dustin!”

“Yeah?”

“Do you still have my journal?”

“Oh yeah,” me motioned to the bag (your purse) that he proudly wore across his body. He was about to take it off, when you stopped him.

“No, no, no. Keep it. It’s safer with you. Maybe it’ll help. See if one of you can crack that number that’s in there. I’m sure it’s good for something.”

“Will do!” Robin gave you a thumbs up.

You waved goodbye to all of them and watched them leave through the front doors of the mall.

***

You sat down on the bench with Hopper and El. You both sat on either side of him, your hands intertwined with his. Your heart was aching at the idea of being separated from him again, of him going down there where you had been trapped for so long.

“My battery is low, but it will recharge,” El uttered softly.

“I know it will, kid. I know.”

“I can fight.” The words came out with a bite that made you and Hopper smile.

“Better than any of us,” he responded. “But right now, I need you safe. This thing is after you. It’s not after me. You understand? I need you to understand.”

El looked up at him warily, but then nodded. “Okay.”

Hopper looked to you now. “You take care of your sister, okay? You take care of each other, but she needs you a little more now.”

You nodded, understanding completely. “I know. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

“And this thing, if Billy Hargrove knows about you too and he’s part of this thing….you be careful, okay?”

“I’ve kicked his ass before, I can kick his ass again.”

“Nine,” he uttered sternly. “Don’t mess with this thing. He’s not human anymore.”

You pursed your lips together. “Okay.”

“Hey,” Mike called to you. You all looked up. “We should probably go.”

Hopper sighed, hesitant to leave the two of you, and El threw her arms around him. He hugged her, and then reached his arm around you to bring you into the embrace. Tears stung in your eyes.

“You better come back alive, you hear me?” you whispered. “Or I’ll kill you.”

He chuckled, “I will, I promise.”

You leaned back and looked at each other in equal parts love and sadness. A stray tear came down your cheek and you wiped it away.

Mike came up to help El and this time Max helped with the load. As you walked away to head to Jonathan’s car, Hopper called Mike and told him something you couldn’t hear. You put El’s arm over your shoulders and helped her outside.

Nancy got in the driver’s seat of the station wagon with Jonathan as her passenger, while the rest of you crammed into the back of the car. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, until Nancy turned the key, but the car wouldn’t turn on. Suddenly you got a bad feeling prickling at the back of your neck.

The kids argued with Nancy about what the problem could be as she forcefully tried to start the car, until Jonathan stopped her and told her to pop the hood. They both stepped out and checked what was going on. Apparently the whole ignition cable was ruined, leaving you without a ride. 

Not a moment later, the loud roaring sound of an engine revving up made you all jump. All of you looked out the left side of the car in horror, because up ahead with his headlights on, was Billy Hargrove in his familiar blue car. The culprit.

_There you are, you son of a bitch._

But it wasn’t just Billy, he wasn’t human, and the Mind Flayer was controlling him. You had to get back inside for safety or else he’d kill you.

“Get out! Get out!” you shouted to the kids. “We need to go back into the mall!”

Nancy and Jonathan were thinking the same thing. You burst out of the station wagon, helping El along the way. Now that the car wasn’t working, you had nowhere else to go, so you clambered back into Starcourt, all while shooting a dreadful glare at Billy Hargrove, who was just staring threateningly.

Your first thought when back inside was that you needed something to defend yourself. Once again you were wishing for Steve’s bat with nails, or your axe, but you had to resort to something else. You wished you had a gun like the one Hopper had, and then you remembered that the dead Russians El took out with the car must have had guns.

You and Nancy each searched a body for one, and Mike tried the radio to contact the Scoops Troop. You were lucky to find some guns, ready and loaded, in their holsters. You had every intention of using it if necessary.

“You’re gonna kill him, aren’t you?” Max asked.

Nancy gave her the nicer answer. “This is just a precaution, okay?”

You popped the magazine back into the gun, twisting your lips slightly. You had a feeling it would be more than just a precaution and more of a necessity. “Right.”

Nancy shot you a disapproving look, although you were sure Max didn’t hear you. You shrugged innocently.

Although you hated Billy’s guts you had to remember that he was Max’s brother, and despite their relationship, you highly doubted she wanted him dead. She still loved him deep down. But even Will said it, that if Billy knows you’re in Starcourt, so does the Mind Flayer, and if things go south, you had to do what’s best to protect everyone and end this.

“Scoops Troop, I repeat, we are in need of emergency transportation. Do you copy?” The sound of Mike’s urgent calls into the radio caught all of your attention. He walked across the overturned car, sparking a question in Nancy.

“No chance that thing’ll drive, right?”

Jonathan’s face lit up with an idea. “We don’t need it to drive. We just need the ignition cable.”

All of you set on a personal mission to get the ignition cable from the car, which meant having to move it. You all got behind it, and started pushing with all of your strength. At first, it was to no avail, and El offered herself and her powers up to help. But after a moment of the car merely creaking, but not moving, it was apparent that her battery was indeed low. Her abilities weren’t working, so you were going to have to try it another way.

Mike had the idea to use metal poles that are used to keep velvet ropes together. With the flat, round ends, and the power of physics, you pushed against the car, until it finally rolled back upright.

Jonathan and Nancy wasted no time in popping the hood and getting what you needed. Max and Mike went to go check on El, who wasn’t feeling too good about not being able to move the car. You and Will stood by, waiting patiently, and you were about to check on El, when suddenly your head started to hurt and you heard a ringing in your ears. Your hand flew to your head.

Beside you, Will whispered sharply, “Do you feel that too?”

You turned to him. He looked terrified and his own hand was hovering over the back of his neck. Your stomach was in knots, because if he felt what you felt, then it must have meant….

Distant rumbling could be heard nearby, and slowly things started to shake. You looked around, holding your breath so you could hear where it was coming from, and then you saw Max looking up. You followed her line of sight and watched with horror as the glass above started to quake and crack...beneath the weight of something.

You gasped. Something was up there. It didn’t take much to know what.

“Nancy!” Mike shouted as a warning to his sister.

As if in slow motion, you snapped your gaze to El, who was also staring up in fear. 

“El!”

You broke into a run, speeding towards her as Nancy and Jonathan called after you. Mike took El’s hand to run, but she pulled back, reaching out for you and you managed to reach her as the glass finally gave way above and shattered. The gutteral sound of a creature echoed through the mall as you sprinted to safety, behind a kiosk next to the escalator.

“Are you crazy?” Mike whispered to you. “That thing almost came down on you!”

“I’m not leaving El behind!” you argued and then shushed all of them.

You peered over the counter just a smidge, and caught a sight of the fleshy monster that had crashed through the ceiling, in person. You cringed in disgust, and crouched back down to avoid being seen. In the darkness, you tried remembering where you were in the mall, and thinking of any possible exit you could take to safety. Then you remembered the Gap, your own job, had a way out through the back.

Mike took his turn to look, and when he came back down he said,

“It’s turned away. If we go upstairs now, we’ll make it.”

“No way, not with El’s leg,” Max said.

“We have to try.”

You shook your head at him. “No, guys. There’s another way to get out. Through the Gap.”

Mike processed that and took another look at the monster, and when he made sure it was still looking away, he nodded at all of you.

“Okay, now!”

Leading the way, you ran to The Gap, with all three kids in tow. You managed to get by quietly, until El tripped over a velvet rope and fell over, making the metal pole clang to the floor a little too loudly. In the distance you could hear the monster roar and start to move towards you with rattling steps. You helped El from the floor and sprinted behind a stack of clothing.

The floor shook with the pounding footsteps of the creature and it’s booming roar as it looked into the store. You held a shaking finger to your lips, your other hand firmly on the gun in your waistband. It wouldn’t do anything, but it was all you had. El’s powers weren’t working, and it was up to you at this point.

You could hear it’s arms probing the place. It got closer and closer, and you cocked the gun as slowly and quietly as you could. Then, across from you, on the end that Mike was sitting at, a clawed alien hand came into few. Everyone froze, except you. You raised the gun slowly, and pointed it at the claw, your finger on the trigger. You were shaking, but ready to fire if it did anything.

Suddenly, a loud pop came from outside of the store. Like the sound of a rupturing balloon, and it sounded so much like a gunshot you almost thought you had accidentally pulled the trigger, but you didn’t. All of you jumped, froze again, and listened as the monster roared and followed the other noise, no doubt triggered by Nancy or one of the kids out there.

You relaxed the tiniest bit.

Once you saw the monster was out of sight, and you were out of his, you uncocked the gun and urged the kids to run to the back of the store. You followed close behind them this time, throwing a glance out the door to make sure you weren’t being followed.

***

Steve rammed into the side of Billy’s car, sending the asshole flying and keeping him from hitting Nancy and the kids at full speed. Steve and Robin’s body’s moved against the momentum of the car as they swerved and then came to a screeching halt.

They both breathed heavily, completely slack-jawed at what he just did. Add it to the list of crazy things he’s done in the last 24 hours.

“Are you okay?” he asked Robin.

“Ask me tomorrow?” she looked at him warily, which was valid considering all of the shit she’s dealt with without any warning.

A nasty alien snarl came from beyond, and the two of them stood up over the windshield, and looked ahead at the mall, where a giant spider-like creature crawled over the roof.

Steve gulped in fear. Right on cue, Nancy and Jonathan pulled up there car right beside them, honking at the two of them to get in. Robin and Steve jumped out of the white convertible and hurried to the back of the station wagon. No sooner had they gotten in did Jonathan screech forward, out of the parking lot and onto the road.

Steve’s eyes immediately scanned around the car, counting the heads and searching the faces, only to find that you were missing. He twisted around to the back window, where Starcourt was growing smaller and the giant monster that was clawing towards them.

“Wait, wait, wait, where’s Nina?” he shouted, his heart beating fast at the thought of you in danger.

“Last time I saw her, she was with El, Mike, and Max.” Lucas said.

“In Starcourt?”

“Yeah.”

“No, no, no, we need to go back. We need to find them!” The only reason he didn’t try opening the door was because the car was moving and a monster was chasing them.

“If you haven’t noticed, Steve. We’re being chased by an alien monster!” Nancy called back. “We have to trust that they’ll be okay!”

Robin put a hand on his shoulder and tried talking him down. “Besides, with this thing chasing us, they won’t have to worry about it. Right?”

He clenched his jaw and looked at her somberly. “Billy Hargrove’s still out there.”

“But you hit him with the car. He was unconscious when we left him.”

“He’s not exactly human, though, is he?”

And the bastard had a history of getting back up.

***

Mike and Max carried El behind you, while you led them down the familiar hallway that ran behind so many of the stores at Starcourt. The lights flashed above you, creating an unsettling environment. Still, you stayed on high alert as you jogged with the gun still grasped in your hand. 

You reached a door that took you outside, and for a second you wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. There was an automatic gate, and the button was right there, within your grasp. You pushed it, and helped carry El through the gate.

But to your complete horror, just beyond a wall of fire lighting up his car, was Billy Hargrove.

“Fuck,” you cursed.

“Go, go, go!” Mike yelled, and you all rushed back through the gate.

Max managed to push the button to get the gate to close, but you had a bad feeling that it wasn’t going to be enough.

***

Steve looked out the window as they drove up the road, and noticed, to his horror, that the beast had stopped following them. In fact, he looked like it was going in the other direction. Towards the mall. Towards you.

His heart sunk.

“It’s turning around!” he announced to the rest of the car.

“What?” Nancy looked back.

“He’s turning around! He’s going back!”

“Maybe we wore it out,” Lucas offered.

“I don’t think so,” Jonathan uttered. “Hold on.”

With that quick warning, he turned the car back around aggressively and everyone inside went flying. Now all Steve could do was shake his leg in nervous anticipation. He could only hope that they’d get to you in time.

“You think she’ll be okay?” Robin asked.

He looked at her seriously and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

***

Billy was following you, you knew it. You could feel it. Whether it was in your gut, or it was that strong weight in your brain coming back. You had to find another way out, find another way to safety.

You were back in another hallway, this time Mike led the way as you and Max carried El. You reached the, where an elevator was, and you desperately pressed the button to go up. Behind you, you heard the bang of a door open. When the hairs on the back of your neck raised, you didn’t know if it was out of fear or if it was a sign the Mind Flayer within him was close. Either way, there was no way to run, you’d have to fight.

Max took a look around the corner, and froze when she saw what was at the other end.

“Billy,” she whispered as heavy footfalls came closer.

El hid behind Mike. You cocked your gun and planted yourself in front of Max as Billy’s silhouette marched towards you. Max tried telling him to stop, tried to reason with him, but you knew he wouldn’t listen. You kept your gun raised, ready to fire.

“Billy, you don’t have to do this.”

He didn’t stop. 

“Billy-” She tried naming things about him, but he still didn’t stop.

You squeezed the trigger and shot him in the shoulder. He stumbled back and groaned, but he took the hit like it was nothing, and kept moving forward. You aimed at his leg, and shot him again. He buckled to the ground and doubled over. You kept the gun trained on him, your eyes blazing, your chest heaving.

The kids all hid behind you, in the corner where the elevator was. The elevator wasn’t working, there was no place to go.

“Don’t make me shoot you in the head, Billy,” you threatened. “The Mind Flayer won’t be able to save you from that one.”

A sound like a grumble came out of him, which turned into a hoarse maniacal laugh as he got back to his feet like nothing happened. He flashed his teeth at you, the black veins protruding from his skin making him look like a demon.

“You don’t have the guts,” he said, before lunging at you.

You pulled the trigger again a second too late, for he knocked it out of your hand, and the bullet sunk into the wall ahead. With his superhuman strength, he threw you against the wall. Every part of your body that hit the concrete hurt with pang, but the crack in your skull felt worse.

Your vision got blurry and you could barely move as you were losing consciousness. Around you, you could hear the screams of Max, Mike, and El. And your brain was telling you to fight, to get back up. So, you peeled your eyes open, and found the gun was a few feet in front of you. With a weak hand, you tried reaching for it, only to have Billy kick it away.

He laughed. “I think I’ll take you too. Just in case.”

With that, he brought his boot down on your face, and knocked you out.

***

You woke up on the cold floor to the sound of a guttural roar. At the opening of your eyes, you gasped at the sight a few feet away from you, El on the floor, in the middle of Starcourt, Billy standing over her, and the monster about to eat her alive.

You sat up, maybe a little too quickly and screamed, “No!”

Just as it’s claws were about to touch her face, a giant firework exploded onto the monster’s side. Then another, and another. Yellow, red, and green fireworks, all attacking the beast from above. You could hear people’s voices, voices you knew coming from the second floor as they attacked it. You would’ve smiled or laughed with joy had you not been preoccupied with what was going below.

You stood back up to your feet and locked eyes with El. You ran to her and she tried crawling to you. All you could think about was getting to her. Your hands grabbed for one another’s, and just as you were about to help her from the ground, Billy’s large, veined hand wrapped itself around your throat.

You gasped, El screamed, the wind was knocked out of you as he squeezed your neck. El tried attacking him, but he grabbed her by the hair aggressively.

“Don’t touch her!” you tried shouting, but it came out a pained whisper.

Billy’s bloodshot eyes bore into yours as the fires ignited by the fireworks lit a fearful scene behind him. The multi-colored fireworks painted his hair and eyes in different hues.

“You again.”

Above the fray, from the second story, you heard Steve’s voice perfectly, just as you had heard it in your dreams. It echoed with the sound of his agony, and pained you deeply. “Nine!”

“You’re just like her aren’t you?” Billy uttered. “Causing me nothing but trouble.”

Through gasps for air you choked, “Then maybe you should kill me first, huh? I know your every move, I know what’s gonna happen next and there won’t be anything on this earth that will stop me from doing everything in my power to stop this. To stop you. If you kill her, I kill you. So, you better take me too.”

The whole time he raised your higher and higher off the ground. You desperately clawed at his hand, kicked at him with flailing legs, but to no avail. You even tried gaining some footing, but it was no use.

Maybe you were crazy, maybe you were just hoping to buy some time for El, or maybe you were hoping that if you tried hard enough, you’d get some visions you wanted him to see. Just like El had done in your visions.

He squeezed a little harder, and you whimpered. “Oh, I will.”

You squeezed his wrist and closed your eyes, half expecting him to kill you, but the next thing you knew, you were hit with a wave of visions. 

_Visions of a future, where he didn’t kill you or El, where he didn’t sacrifice himself. Visions of him on a beach as a kid with his mom, you knew this now. He was happy. “You were happy.” Other memories with him and his mom, where he seemed like such a sweet kid, a different kid. But then she left, and he was left behind._

You fell to your knees suddenly as Billy dropped you and you came back to reality. You coughed, having been freed from his clutches and getting the oxygen back into your lungs, but it didn’t stop you from seeing stars. 

When you peered up at him, his blue eyes were on you in complete shock. And you knew he must have seen what you saw, you knew you got through to him somehow.

“You were happy,” you uttered hoarsely.

“Nine!” you heard as Steve came running up behind you, his arms finding your shoulders as he slid to your side. His big brown eyes were like saucers, but he looked so relieved to see you alive, just as you were relieved to see him.

“Steve,” you whispered like a wish come true.

He glanced over at Billy and glared at the possessed boy. He moved to launch himself at him, to fight him, but you held him back.

“No, no, wait.”

You watched as El put her hands on Billy’s face, and repeated the same phrase you told him. “You were happy.” She described his mother and how they used to be before she left. And as the monster raged behind it all, Billy cried. The real Billy beneath it all. You were in awe just looking at him.

“Look!” Steve pointed to the monster behind him.

The fireworks had run out, but for some reason, it started roaring as if in pain, and stumbled around the court. There was no telling what it would hit or where it would land.

You clutched onto Steve, who did the same to you. 

“It’s dying,” you said. You couldn’t help but smile when you realized what could be the cause. “The gate. They did it.”

El fell to her knees next to you. You all huddled together as the Monster started to collapse and slowly die, before it finally fell dead on the floor. And Billy, who had been standing straight, passed out on the floor just a few seconds after. Whatever was possessing him, was out.

But was he alive?

“Billy!” Max cried out from behind you, immediately going to her brother’s unmoving body. From where you were sitting he looked dead. “Billy, wake up. Billy, please.”

Mike went to El, who wrapped her arms around him tightly. But you all watched in anticipation as Max shook her unconscious brother. The black veins were gone, but he was still bleeding from the bullets you put in him. For Max’s sake, you hoped that wasn’t enough to kill him.

“Billy!” she shouted through tears, and as if called from the depths of hell, his chest puffed out as he took in a huge gasp of air and coughed.

“Max?”

The little red head hugged her brother across the chest tightly, and you leaned back against Steve in relief. Who knew you’d be relieved about Billy’s well being?

Cheers were heard from above, cheers of victory for having killed the beast, and closed the gate. And you were struck by the beautiful awareness that this was over, that the gate was closed yet again and everybody was safe. Albeit, you had literally almost died, which shook to your core. 

You turned to Steve, taking him fully now that you weren’t worried for anyone’s life. 

“Are you okay?” he asked.

You nodded tiredly, “You?”

He hugged you tight against him and said, “Better now that you’re okay.”

The way he wrapped his arms around you and hugged you tightly, like he was afraid of letting you go, told you enough about how he felt. This was different from almost getting eaten by demodogs. The stakes were higher, and you meant more to each other than ever before.

“I thought I lost you for a second there,” he whispered against your hair.

“I thought so too,” you chuckled darkly.

He kissed your forehead affectionately, and the two of you stayed in each other’s arms until you couldn’t anymore. The rest of the gang joined you downstairs, and there were hugs from everyone. Robin hugged you especially tighter when she saw you were okay.

Now the only thing that was left, was to wait for Hopper, Joyce, and Murray to come back from the underground base. And you just prayed to everything and anything up there that they all got out of there alive.


	10. "Until Then"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which everyone is reunited after The Battle of Starcourt, and we jump 3 months ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finale!! Thank you to everyone who loved and supported this series!!!! It was a wild ride, but I’m glad you loved it 😭 I got asked if I’m going to make another sequel when ST4 comes out, and well...read this part and let me know if that would even be possible akdhgajshgd

It was hectic in the Starcourt parking lot. Ambulances, fire trucks, police cars, and even army convoys surrounded the building. Fires were being put out, injuries were being tended to, and soldiers marched with their assault rifles, ready to attack any Russians.

You sat in the back of an ambulance, for the second time that summer, getting your face tended to by an EMT. She put a bandage on the side of your forehead, where the Russian had hit you with his gun, and where Billy had knocked you out with his boot. You could feel every ache in your body now that you were sitting down and the adrenaline was out of you, especially around your neck, where you had nearly been strangled. To no surprise, you had bruises there, you had bruises everywhere. 

When the EMT was done with you, she left you in the back of the ambulance with the blanket you had been given. Steve came up to you, and sat by your side. Robin and El sat on an empty gurney next to the ambulance. You rested your head against his shoulder and sighed tiredly. The two of you watched as they rolled Billy on a gurney, into another ambulance, all while Max was by his side.

“Never did I think I’d take part in saving Billy Hargrove,” you said.

“You and me both.”

“Maybe this’ll be good for him. Maybe he’ll be less of an asshole now that he has a second chance.”

“You really think that?” Steve didn’t sound convinced.

You shrugged, “Maybe not, but I like to think so.”

The both of you sat there for a little bit, tired and in silence. You, on the other hand, were anxious. Hopper was nowhere to be found and you with every passing minute, you were starting to worry that things might have gone wrong down below. Steve tried giving you reassuring words.

“It’s a maze down there, remember? Plus that elevator takes forever. I’m sure they just haven’t gotten to the surface yet.”

It helped a little bit, after all, he wasn’t wrong.

Then you suddenly hear him say, “Look!”

He pointed forward and you lifted your head from his shoulder. Even El had sprung up from her seat, because up ahead, was Joyce Byers, back from the underground Russian base. Will was already running up to embrace her. And right behind her, coming out of the haze, was Jim Hopper, your dad. He was scanning the area, no doubt looking for you.

You gasped in shock, your heart already pouding, and jumped down from the ambulance, going towards him. El was running up ahead of you, beating you to him.

“Dad!” you shouted.

His gaze snapped in your direction and his face lit up. He opened his arms wide, and as you both crashed into him, he uttered, “Oh, thank God.”

You held him tightly, afraid to let him go. He smelled of smoke and gun powder. The tears came flowing of their own accord, before you were so happy, so relieved to see him. Your visions had shown you a future you thought would end in tragedy, but something must have gone right, and he was here.

“You’re alive,” you cried.

He ran his hand over the back of your head comfortingly. “I’m right here. I’ve got you. You haven’t seen the last of me.”

He pulled back and looked between the two of you. All of you were crying, even him.

Your little family was back together again. A little banged up, and with a little more trauma, but you were okay. You were gonna be okay.

***

3 months later…

You carried the heavy box marked, “Kitchen” through the doorway of the new house, making a beeline for the place it belonged to. The place bustled with members of your Hawkins family. Everyone was carrying boxes inside, boxes with items salvaged from the cabin, or helping out with furniture, both old and new. You could smell fresh paint emanating from the hallway, where Max and El were finishing painting her new room. Somewhere in the distance, you could hear Dustin directing (annoying) people in the moving truck. Anyone else busied themselves with tasks.

You set down the box on the counter, and smiled at Robin, who was putting away cups and dishes from another box. Jonathan and Mike helped bring more boxes into the living room.. Your attention was brought to the front door, where there was a struggle between Hopper and Steve, who were carrying in the new dining table.

Hopper fixed Steve with a glare, “Kid, if you get a scratch on this new table, I swear to God.”

“Calm down, chief. I’m not gonna scratch it.”

“Angle it, angle it.”

“I am angling it!”

“Angle it more!”

“That’s all it goes, it’ll fit.”

Hopper huffed an annoyed sigh.

You watched them with an amused smirk as they carried in the long table, slowly and carefully. Despite their bickering they managed to get it in with zero scratches. 

Seeing so many of them here, helping you move into the new place, truly warmed your heart.

Shortly after what you guys called, “The Battle of Starcourt”, it was clear that there were going to be some big changes in your lives. Since the mall was basically destroyed and had a secret Russian base underneath, you, Robin, and Steve were out of jobs (not that you’d miss them anyway). Your cabin, which you had called home for a long time, was destroyed by the fleshy monster, so not only were you out of a job, but you were out of a home. El had lost her powers for the time being, and she was adjusting to that. Hawkins was more under scrutiny that ever before, and the shady mayor was arrested for covering things up (good riddance). It was safe to say that nothing was going to be the same in Hawkins after this, and there’d have to be some major adjustments.

Robin and Steve applied to the family video store next to the arcade, and they roped you into applying with them too. Before you knew it, what was just an employee of one at the family video, was now a group of four. Of course, you mostly took the morning shifts since come September, you were officially enrolled in night school to study for your GED. 

Going to school, with your complete lack of history with it, was strange to you, but luckily you had an amazing group who promised to help you along the way. You were lucky to be friends with complete and total nerds, and even Steve offered to help you study (although, of course he had to put a sexy twist to it, didn’t he?). It would only be for a semester, and four months felt both like a million years away, but also a week.

The job at the video store helped you pay for those classes, and it also allowed you to help out Hopper with the new place. At first the three of you were basically homeless, and slept at the Byers’ place (to save Joyce the trouble, you slept at Steve’s), but then you managed to find a place at the edge of the woods. Hopper grumbled about wanting to stay secluded, but you personally felt like it was a sign from the universe that the isolation needed to stop. You all needed a fresh start after this. After all, the place was really nice, it wasn’t the cabin, but with the right decorating, you could make it feel just as cozy as the cabin once was.

Joyce quit her job at the store, and took Hopper’s offer to work with him at the precinct as a detective. Her skills were obviously great, and it was clear to everyone in the group that it was the right choice. She had a knack for investigation, and no doubt she’d be a great addition to the team.

On top of that, her and Hopper finally decided to go on another date after their first failed attempt. Going through those last few days together, investigating Russians schemes, followed by seeing her all the time when staying at her place, probably pushed them both over the edge. For you, it was the most exciting piece of news you could ever receive, and you were even more ecstatic when she didn’t stand him up the second time. They were the perfect pair together, and if there was anyone that you could ever see as a mother figure, it was Joyce Byers.

Billy Hargrove was alive and well, and although you were never going to jump at the idea of being his friend, you heard from Max that he was doing okay. He wasn’t the same after everything that happened, and you knew better than anyone how that felt. He was also closer to his sister, which was enough indication for you that he was, even just a little bit, less of an asshole than he was before.

The last time you saw him was when he knocked on the door of the Byers house and asked to speak to you and El. Although the two of you were wary, you both listened as he thanked you both for saving him. It was the calmest you had ever seen him, and “Thank you” was the last thing you expected Billy Hargrove to say to you, but you appreciated it regardless.

You told him, “You’ve got a second chance, Billy. Don’t fuck it up.”

He took no offense to it, and instead promised he wouldn’t. For Max’s sake, you hoped he was right.

With every life threatening event and every passing year, you and the group only seemed to get close and closer….and bigger. Not only were you great friends with Robin, but you were closer to the Byers too. You even saw Nancy more often, since wherever Jonathan was she followed and vice versa. Erica always acted like she was too cool, but every now and then you’d catch her smiling at you. And of course, you and Steve’s relationship was stronger than ever.

The closer the two of you get to a year of being together, the more you couldn’t believe that it’s only been a year. Being with Steve was like forever and no time at all, all at once. You felt like you’ve known him your whole life, and at this point, you didn’t know what you’d do without him. And despite being a couple of young dumb adults in the making, with no clue of what their future held, you wouldn’t have had it any other way.

As for your powers, they did subside again after the gate was closed for the second time, except now you decided not to shut them out completely. You still wore gloves as a precaution, but put your powers to use when needed (or when one of the kids wanted to know something), and kept up the practice of keeping a journal. Hopper even started coming to you for help with investigations (finally) to help gather clues, either with visions or the void. He called you his “advisor”.

El’s powers, however, still hadn’t come back. You hypothesized that it had something to do with the parasite that was in her leg, but none of you were entirely sure. No matter how many times she tried over the course of three months, it was to no avail. You all did your best to distract her, and even offered up the idea to enroll her in school. Despite Hopper’s worries, you and Joyce felt like it was time.

Overall, it was clear that a lot had changed in such little time.

***

You and Steve stood in the middle of your new room, with his arms wrapped around you from behind as you looked over at everything. With the help of the team, you got moved in fairly swiftly, which was a dream. Boxes were still stacked up and in need of unpacking, dressers were empty, but there was a bed and your clothes were in the closet at least.

“I finally have my own room,” you marveled.

For the first time in your entire life, both you and El had a space that you could call your own (not counting the cell in the lab). The two of you were excited to express yourselves even further, plaster yourselves on the walls creatively. Better late than never.

“Yeah I can finally come over and not have to worry about El being in the room. Maybe even stay the night?” he said with insinuation.

You rolled your eyes, “You really want to try something with Hopper living in the same house?”

“It’s nothing different than when we sneak around at my place when my parents are home. We’ll figure something out.”

You inclined your head in agreement. “It’ll be a nice change of pace from the Harrington mansion.”

He snorted. “Don’t exaggerate.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Mini mansion,” you giggled.

He shook his head and tickled your sides in response. You burst out in a fit of laughter, and tried getting away from him, but he stayed close to you.

“Steve, stop!” he yelled between giggles. You pushed away from him and lifted a finger, both of you were smiling despite how serious you were trying to be. “You tickle me again, and I’ll punch you.”

“I’ve heard that threat before.”

“Steve, no-Ah!”

He went for your stomach again, except instead of tickling you, he tackled you to the empty floor next to your bed playfully. You couldn’t even be mad, you were so amused, you cackled at how ridiculous he was. He was on top of you, burying his face into your neck as you both laughed.

From beyond the door you could hear Max yelling, “We can hear you!”

He lifted his head and bared his teeth apologetically, only for the two of you to burst into giggles again.

“I hate you,” you uttered playfully once you caught your breath.

“I know you do,” he smirked, and leaned down to kiss you slowly.

Then you remembered that you still had company over and you weren’t exactly alone, so you pushed him away from you. He frowned.

You pointed to the door, “We’re not exactly alone, Harrington.”

He nodded, “You’re right, you’re right.”

He laid down on his side next to you, staring at you as you took in the room again. Having him here in your new room, which was practically empty, had you thinking about other possibilities. Possibilities you never even dreamed of until you met him.

“You think one day we’ll have our own place? You know...in the future?”

He scoffed, “Of course. I mean, I don’t know exactly when, but yeah. Then we won’t have to worry about going back and forth, or any interruptions or sneaking around.”

“You don’t think I’m crazy for thinking about it?”

“No. I mean, it’s us, right? We already spend so much time together. And I don’t want to live under my dad’s dictatorship much longer.”

“You know that means abandoning your nice house, right? And the pool and your room.”

“I already told you, that shit doesn’t mean anything. I’ll...I’ll survive.” His voice went a little higher as he spoke.

“You sure?” 

“Yeah! Hey, maybe when you get into college in the city, and I’ve saved up enough money,” he shrugged, “Who knows?”

Your eyes grew at how optimistic he was. “ _ When _ I get into college?”

“Yeah, of course. You’re way smarter than me, you’ll kill it.”

You pouted your lower lip, overcome with how much your heart just soared at his sweet words. He had zero doubts about you succeeding and it was all you could ever want from him.

“And you wanna come with me?”

“I mean….yeah. Unless you don’t want me to, then that’s totally okay...I mean-”

You put a finger over his lips to shush him, and his brow furrowed in confusion.

“Hmm??” he hummed in question.

“Of course I want you to come with me, you idiot.” You removed the finger from his lips.

“Really? Are you sure?”

“As of right now, I don’t see why not.”

He smiled brightly. 

“I mean it’s a crazy idea and merely a possibility for the distant future.”

“Right,” you nodded, “But it doesn’t hurt to think about it.”

“Right.”

The door to your room swung open, interrupting you two, and in came Hopper, sniffing around for trouble like he was at a crime scene. 

“What are you guys doing in here?”

You looked up at him lazily. “Talking.”

He looked perplexed by the fact that you were on the floor and not the bed.

“What are you doing down there?”

“Resting after a hard day of work,” Steve said.

“Well, pizza’s here, and everybody’s grabbing slices, so if you want any, you should come get some.”

“We’ll be right there.”

He nodded once and left the door open when he left. With a sigh, Steve got up from the carpeted floor and then reached his hand out to help you. When you were both on your feet, you tugged him towards the door, following the scent of pizza. But just before you could reach the hallway, he pulled you back towards him, eliciting a surprised squeal from you.

His hand went to the back of your neck and he kissed you one last time before heading out with everybody else. You smiled against his lips, letting happy visions flutter across your closed lids. They were of a future that clearly had yet to happen, but it was a good future.

Until then, you’d learn to enjoy the unknown, and to survive the now.


End file.
